


The Dead will walk the Earth

by SuspiciousLandlady



Series: No more room in Hell [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Angst, Blood and Gore, M/M, Mystery, Or at least this will be goreish, Peter and Matt are good friends, There will be a lot of death, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, and more characters, you know zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-07-24 02:54:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7490466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuspiciousLandlady/pseuds/SuspiciousLandlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's either them or you, and they don't hesitate to act. They're back from beyond the grave. They're back here to spread the same fate what they experienced earlier. Their only reason to be here is to make sure that the virus, or whatever is making everything happening, keeps going on. That the infection doesn't stop there.</p><p>And their only motive to keep infecting people is the endless hunger for their fresh flesh. </p><p>The world is dying.</p><p>The apocalypse has begun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The New World

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!!  
> If you didn't notice, this is part of my new fic series called No more room in Hell. This is the main story in the series, but there's actually already prologue added to the series. If you haven't read that, it's not so necessary to read it, but reading it gives you the idea what happened just days before this story. 
> 
> And don't be scared of the tag Peter Parker & Matt Murdock, the tag is there to show that these two are going to have almost brotherly relationship!
> 
> This is the Team Red zombie apocalypse fic no one asked for but is getting it anyway.

It began when it was least expected. Something what we've seen happening only in the movies, no one ever believed those horror pictures would some day become real. The world changed in front of our eyes and people didn't even notice that, the signs began to be visible only when it was already too late to try prevent it from happening.

Is it a virus? Or is it a result of bioterrorism?

We don't know.

When the signs first showed up, it was brushed off as being something harmless like a flu. The first symptoms are similar to regular flu and because it was flu season at its best, it was misjudged as part of it. But when the high fever replaced the normal symptoms, people worried that it was going to turn out as one of those influenza viruses which didn't have any kind of medicine yet.

Life is a fragile thing. It can be destroyed easily, like human mind itself too.

The fever turned out to be fatal. Many of them who got sick with this new disease were dead shortly after the fever kicked in. It's merciless, it doesn't decide who's going to get sick and who's not. It doesn't care whether you're young or elderly, it doesn't care are you living healthy or not. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter.

Everybody will be treated all the same.

One thing is known for sure.

Aim for the head.

It's either them or you, and they don't hesitate to act. They're back from beyond the grave. They're back here to spread the same fate what they experienced earlier. Their only reason to be here is to make sure that the virus, or whatever is making everything happening, keeps going on. That the infection doesn't stop there.

And their only motive to keep infecting people is the endless hunger for their fresh flesh.

The world is dying.

The apocalypse has begun.

* * *

 

_"Foggy.. Foggy..."_

Peter opened his eyes slowly, trying to realize what actually woke him up in the first place. He listened silently how the same name was repeated over and over again by a woman voice what reminded him of Siri. Judging by the voice, he just knew that it was a phone what kept making that sound, but Peter could not understand why it was saying that name constantly.

In fact, when he was wake enough to see everything clearly, he realized that he wasn't in his own bedroom.

The room he was in was so spacious compared to his own, tiny and cramped shithole what he's so used to call his home. But this bedroom was not his. The large windows without any curtains let all the light come to the room, painting the gloomy brick walls with the brightness coming from the outside. The room was lacking furniture, bed, wardrobe and nightstand being mostly the only things in there.

Even though he just woke up, Peter was feeling extremely tired. While he stretched his limbs, a sleepy yawn escaped from his lips. It felt like he had slept one eternity, but still he was feeling like he needed more sleep.

The thought of going back to sleep was tempting, but Peter is more interested to know where he is and why he's here. This isn't his apartment and what the heck is that voice coming from the other room?

Especially after he realized that he was still in his Spiderman suit and the mask resting on the nightstand was enough to make him jump out of the bed. This didn't look good so far, why was he in a strange apartment, in his suit and without his mask? Something was odd but he couldn't remember how he exactly got here in the first place.

Annoyed by the voice coming from the other room, he walked slowly toward the wide open bedroom door, getting closer to the source of the noise. At the same time he tried to figure out where he was, this apartment wasn't familiar to him at all.

_"Foggy... Foggy..."_

When he finally stepped into the other room, which turned out to be some kind of living room with a mini kitchen, Peter finally found out where the noise was coming from.

The phone on the coffee table kept making the sound while the name 'Foggy' was on the screen. Just as Peter got close enough to pick up the phone and wonder should he answer to it or not, the call ended and the silence fell into the apartment.

Peter put the phone back where it had been and eyed the room more, studying it and trying to remember how he even got here. This didn't look like a house where baddies would take him after kidnapping him. He did have a little bit of experience about those things too, and this definitely didn't match with his other experiences.

As he was studying the place more, he noticed how his sight got suddenly blurry and it felt like he was going to lose his balance or like the room was spinning. Oh great, was he drugged too? Is this all just staged for the later purposes?

There was a very silent thud behind him and Peter turned around as fast as he could, getting a good look of red blurriness. He clenched his fists and tried to look like he wasn't scared at all, like he was going to beat the shit out of this person if they tried to pull some kind of trick. He could feel how the adrenaline was filling his veins and his heart was pounding against his chest. Even though he felt light-headed, it didn't stop him from trying to look as threatening as possible.

"If I was you, I'd stay in the bed. You've had a high fever and resting is the best option right now."

The voice is familiar but Peter isn't sure to whom it belongs. He lowers his fists and tries to recognize that voice. There isn't many options of guys wearing that much red he knows, so after leaving Wade out of the options, he finally gets some kind of picture about this person.

"Is it you, Daredevil?" Peter found himself asking, his voice dry and hoarse like he hasn't drink anything in ages. He blinked couple of times more before his vision finally gets clear again and his guess was correct.

Daredevil was standing next to the open window what Peter hadn't noticed when he stepped into the room. Or maybe it wasn't open when he first time glanced around, maybe Daredevil just opened it and entered to the apartment. It's not unusual for him to appear out of nowhere, usually when you least expect it.

"Wait!" Peter whines when he realized something, giving no time for Daredevil to speak again.

"What fever? What time is it? I'm late, I have to go or else Jameson is going to kick my butt again. Shit, I'm probably late from my part-time job too!"

The realization hit him hard, he had no idea what time is it but he doesn't care. If Daredevil is here, Peter only assumes that he is in Hell's Kitchen, in Daredevil's apartment.

Then the memories hit him like a train, making him remember why he's here in the first place. How Deadpool had delivered Daredevil's message after the night patrol, how Peter found himself in Hell's Kitchen, chatting with the other man and how they were suddenly surprised by Kingpin's men. His hand went automatically to his chest, to the spot where there still was a little scab from the knife wound.

"No", Daredevil simply answered when Peter was pacing back and fourth, trying to calm himself down. He was already stressed out because he just knew that this day was going to be shitty. J. Jonah Jameson was going to whoop his ass hard because he obviously didn't have any pictures for the Daily Bugle right now and he was also having a little crisis going on since Daredevil had seen his face.

Peter stopped and turned his eyes back to Daredevil's direction.

"No? What do you mean 'no'? I have a life too alongside with the whole superhero stuff, I can't get fired from my work. I need money or else I can kiss goodbye to my apartment and studies", Peter said, clearly annoyed but he could feel how his body wasn't acting normally. The sudden feel of weakness hit him again and he'd have lost his balance if Daredevil hadn't been fast enough to be there and support him.

"I already told you that you need to rest. That fever is still making you weak, but judging by the way you're not after my brain already, I guess you didn't caught it. At least I hope so, I don't want to be the one explaining to Deadpool why I had to smash your head into pieces", Daredevil explained while leading Peter back to the bedroom.

Peter was feeling too weak to make any kind of protests, so instead he just let Daredevil lay him back to bed. Now that he was thinking of it more, he was feeling sick. It didn't feel like fever, but this definitely was the aftermath of a high fever.

Daredevil left the room for a moment until he came back with glass filled with water. Peter was more than happy to drink it empty in seconds, he didn't realize how thirsty he really was until the sight of water came into his field of view.

It still felt odd to be without his mask, but Daredevil wasn't saying anything about it. Peter had thought about the possibility of revealing his face to Daredevil too because he trusted him well enough, but now it felt like it had happened too fast. He hadn't been ready at all.

"Rest. You'll only be torturing your body if you don't rest. Trust me, you need it. I'm sure you don't want to turn into one of them", Daredevil whispered, making Peter uncomfortable with all this mysterious behavior. He had hoped that the other man would stop this behavior, but it started to look like he wasn't going to do so. He was still mysterious as fuck, not even telling what was going on.

_"Foggy... Foggy... Foggy..."_

The same female voice started repeating that name again in the living room, making Daredevil wince. Before Peter even managed to open his mouth and ask anything, the devil was already in the other room answering to the call.

"Foggy where are you, are you safe?"

Peter noticed how Daredevil was speaking quietly, almost whispering to the phone like he didn't want to make too much noise. Or he just didn't want Peter to hear the conversation, but whispering didn't stop that. Peter closed his eyes and focused more to hear what Daredevil was speaking to the phone.

"...I don't know. I'm not sure how long we can use phones, the world is going into chaos. I can't really understand how this managed to spread so fast..."

Spread fast? Peter couldn't understand a word. It was all completely gibberish to him. What was spreading? What was going on outside? It was probably the reason why Daredevil was acting so weirdly. But it still doesn't make any sense.

"..Foggy, I need you to listen to me. Take care of Karen and no matter what happens, keep your eyes and ears open. The world is going crazy and you're definitely doomed if you get bitten."

Peter wanted to get up and look outside from the window, check what's going on. Whatever was freaking out Daredevil wasn't just stupid trick by Kingpin. This seemed to be a lot bigger problem.

He didn't try to listen the rest of the call, he was already too busy with thinking and trying to figure out things. Only when Daredevil walked back to the room, Peter finally turned his head and stared him.

"Care to explain what's going on?" he asked, but as he guessed, Daredevil shook his head. He took the empty glass, went to fill it with water again and brought it back to the nightstand. It was making Peter pissed off that Daredevil didn't want to tell him this situation.

It also made him angry that he wasn't going to let Peter go back home, to try and fix his already shitty life. He could practically already see the angry face of J. Jonah Jameson, the way his face turned red when he yelled so loudly, making Peter scared every time that the windows are going to shatter.

"Not now. Rest, I'll tell you everything when you're in better shape."

With that, Daredevil left the room and Peter could hear how he opened one of the windows in living room and exited the apartment.

Peter wanted to go and do his own research, play the role of Sherlock for a little bit but instead he was still feeling sleepy. He tried to fight against the drowsiness, but the soft pillow and bed made it hard to accomplish. Eventually he finally gave up and fell into light sleep.

* * *

 

The next time Peter woke up again, the whole apartment was eerily silent. The only thing he could hear was the rain hitting against the windows. When his vision became clear, he noticed that the bedroom was dark. No lights turned on and there wasn't any sunlight coming from the outside. The atmosphere made him feel uncomfortable, he wasn't even sure was he alone or has Daredevil returned yet.

Peter yawned while he got up and walked to the living room. The lights were turned off there too, but he wasn't alone in the apartment after all.

Daredevil was sitting in one of the armchairs, looking like he was thinking something. He looked like he was so deep in his thoughts that he might not have noticed Peter's presence, and Peter didn't want to surprise him either. He wanted to open his mouth and say something, express his presence in the room but he didn't know what to say. Luckily he didn't have to struggle long with this problem.

"How are you feeling?" Daredevil asked, not even taking a glance of him. Peter was surprised that he actually noticed his presence, but then again this is Daredevil. Daredevil seemed to sense things very easily.

"Feels like I've been sleeping for years. How long I was asleep?" Peter asked while ruffling his hair, walking past the other man and sitting to the couch opposite of Daredevil. Only when Peter was sitting, Daredevil finally moved his head and stared at him.

"Just a couple of hours I guess, but before that you were asleep almost four days row."

"What?"

Peter was dumbfounded, Daredevil had to be joking. And almost like he sensed Peter's disbelief, Daredevil took his phone and showed his lock screen. Peter felt his stomach drop when he took a better look of the date on the screen. He was sure the color was escaping from his face, he almost felt like he was going to throw up. This can't be true.

"I told you before, you caught a fever. I don't know why or how, but you were burning hot and it was really hard to bring it down. I was quite surprised that it was probably from exhaustion and other minor things, because I don't think you got any bites from them. You're not trying to go after my brain, that's a good sign."

Daredevil's words didn't make that much sense. Peter was confused as hell, especially about the 'going after the brain' part. What was Daredevil prattling? This wasn't like him at all, he was speaking stuff what Peter could somehow understand if it was coming from Wade's mouth. But this is Daredevil, the devil of Hell's Kitchen. He doesn't joke around like Deadpool, he doesn't try to make himself look like fool.

"So wait a minute, are you really telling me that I've been sick and sleeping days? This is just too much", Peter complained while he tried to convince himself that Daredevil was joking. He has to, there's no way any of this is real.

"And why did you take my mask off? That's rude, it's like invading my privacy", he continued his complains when he was running out of the other topics worth of his irritation. He didn't like at all that his face has been revealed like that, it almost felt like a punch in the face.

Daredevil didn't answer anything, instead taking his own helmet off and revealing the face hidden behind it. Peter took his time to watch and memorize the sight. It was fair that Daredevil showed his own face after taking off Peter's mask without permission, but Peter was surprised how willingly he did that now. Daredevil didn't seem to be a person who would this easily show his face or tell his real name.

"It doesn't matter anyway, I'm blind. You could pace back and forth here naked and I wouldn't care at all because I can't see that scene. I thought it would be more comfortable to you to be without your mask, hiding your face under the mask while having high fever doesn't sound very enjoyable", Daredevil explained calmly. His words were enough to placate the anger what was bubbling inside Peter's chest, it did make sense why he had taken his mask off.

Peter sighed deeply and shook his head. Unbelievable.

"I'm sorry if you feel violated, I didn't mean to make you feel that way", he apologized, his voice sounding genuinely sorry. Peter bit his lower lip and turned his gaze away from Daredevil, instead staring to the direction of the closest window.

It was still raining, the raindrops battering against the closed windows, making the only noise in the room.

He remained silent and so did Daredevil, both men just sitting there and thinking. Sometimes Peter did take a quick glances toward the other hero's direction, but the window drew his attention back to the raindrops.

The silence fell in the room, making the atmosphere uncomfortable for both of them. The whole scene started to remind about the scene of a pouting child who was mad at their parent while the parent sat and waited them to calm down. And after a while Peter had to admit it that this really felt like that kind of scene. He was moody, like he was protesting while Daredevil just sat there and waited him to finally calm down.

Peter's gaze wandered back to Daredevil's direction, his eyes landing on the phone what was on the coffee table between them.

"Who's Foggy?" Peter asked, breaking the silence and his question surprised Daredevil completely. He could see how the other man winced after he said that name and it looked like he was wondering weither to tell him or not. Apparently he made his decision quickly, since he let out deep sigh and his eyes were looking at Peter's direction.

"He's a friend of mine. We work together, though there's been some quarrels between us lately. He doesn't approve very much my alter ego, he thinks I should be just Matt Murdock instead of being Daredevil", he explained and Peter couldn't help but tilt his head a little bit. Matt Murdock? Is that Daredevil's real identity? After he could taste the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, he realized he was chewing and biting his lip way too hard, eventually breaking the skin and making it bleed.

"Did you.. did you just tell me your real name?" Peter asked carefully, receiving nod as an answer. He felt honored, Daredevil, or rather Matt just told him his real name. Peter didn't even ask that, of course he was curious and wanted to know more about Daredevil but he had never imagined that the other man would actually give him his real identity, to tell him his real name.

Peter felt the urge to be honest with Matt, to tell him his real name too. But he was still hesitating a little bit, the idea of giving his secret identity away felt always so strange. It felt strange when he told it to Deadpool while revealing his face at the same time. He's always cherished his secret identity, keeping it away from the villains of Spiderman and even from the allies too. But now? He felt lost. He wasn't sure what to do.

"I understand if you don't want to tell your name. It's perfectly fine", Matt reassured, like he just read Peter's thoughts. Peter had no idea how Matt could guess what he was thinking, but it wasn't important right now.

Peter needed a moment to think things again. He stood up and walked around the living room, trying to organize his thoughts and feelings. He was repeating Matt's words over and over again in his mind.

So, apparently after Kingpin's men attacked, Matt took him to his apartment and patched his wound. But he ended up getting a fever and Matt's been very busy between his job, Daredevil stuff and taking care of sick friend. Probably he's been a bit scared too, no one wants to find their friend dead at their apartment.

It was still very odd. If he really has been sleeping almost four days in a row, the Peter Parker part of his life was greatly fucked up. And probably Spiderman part too, but not as badly.

He shook his head again and walked over to the closest window, looking outside for the first time in forever.

The water was flowing on the streets, the rain still going on. It was getting dark, but what surprised Peter was the lack of people. Of course rain made people stay indoors as much as possible, but this was weird. More like unusual, though when he narrowed his eyes in concentration, he was able to see a person in the far distance. They were walking very slowly, like they didn't even care that it was raining.

After trying to watch them for a while and judging by the way they were tottering back and forward, Peter assumed they were just too drunk to walk any faster. Or even care that it was almost raining cats and dogs.

"Peter Parker."

He didn't have to turn around to look what kind of expression Matt has on his face right now. Peter could guess it, he could almost see it in his mind, how Matt's brows were drawn together in a frown, confused expression on his face. He probably already realized what that name is, but he was too polite to say anything. Like he was waiting Peter to continue, to add something more.

"That's my name. It's nice to meet you, Matt."

Peter heard how the other man got up from the armchair and walked next to him. When he finally turned his head a little bit, he saw Matt standing next to him, looking like he was staring outside too. Peter hadn't said anything when Daredevil told him he's blind. What could you possibly say to that?

The brunette sighed and turned his gaze back to the window. The drunk man was already gone, but he could see how a bigger group of people were walking there now. He wasn't sure was his eyes betraying him but it almost looked like some of the people were bleeding or even missing limbs.

"Matt, can you now tell me what's going on?" Peter asked but his attention was drawn to the closest alley shorty after that.

He heard a scream and footsteps coming from the outside, there was at least a couple of people running. He leaned closer to the window and searched the source of the noises, noticing a man and woman running like the grim reaper himself was chasing them.

The woman suddenly tripped over and that's when Peter heard the gunshots. It was enough to make him wince, he had to stop whatever was going on there.

"We need to stop that", Peter almost growled when he realized that Daredevil wasn't going to do anything to stop that madness. Someone was just shooting with a gun right in front of his eyes and he wasn't going to stop that? What was happening to Daredevil?

"Peter don't, it's too risky. It's their own fault that they didn't stay indoors like this part of city was instructed to do", Matt tried but Peter didn't listen, he was already in the bedroom, pulling his Spiderman mask on and then opening the window.

"Peter stop!" he heard Matt's commanding voice but Peter didn't obey. If Daredevil wasn't going to stop this, Spiderman sure as hell will.

His body was still recovering after a high fever, but Peter tried to ignore how his body wasn't working with him as he wanted. Too sudden moves made him feel like he was going to lose his balance, but he was too stubborn to turn around and go back to Matt's apartment. He also needed to stop the crime scene, everything shooting related always reminded him about what happened to Uncle Ben. If he can stop that same tragedy happening again, he sure as hell will stop it.

He swung himself to the alley and upon seeing the man who was holding the gun, he shot webs directly to the weapon and pulled it away from the man's hands. The man was crouching next to the woman and at the other end of the alley was two dead bodies lying on the ground, colouring the puddle of rainwater red with their blood.

"What the hell? Give me back my gun, they're going to kill us!" the man yelled after realizing where his gun disappeared. The woman on the ground was whimpering, whining about how her leg hurt and that she couldn't get up.

Spiderman landed next to the dead bodies, crouching and studying the bodies even though he hated seeing these kind of scenes. Both of them were dead, there was no doubt of it.

There was still something what didn't seem to be rigth. The thing what confused him was the way these two looked like they were rotting already, the way their skin didn't look normal at all.

The man yelled again about his gun and how he really wanted it back, but Peter ignored him when he heard footsteps behind. He turned around and saw a couple more people walking toward him, reaching their hands at his direction and letting out quiet groaning and sometimes something else what reminded him of growling.

He dropped the gun from his hand when he got a better look of the upcoming persons.

Both of them were bloody and the other one was missing skin from the cheek, showing the rotten teeth rows and he'd swear there was something stuck between the teeth, like a piece of skin or flesh. The other one was missing an eye and there was skin and flesh missing from the arm what was reaching toward him. Shortly after seeing the details of these people, his spider sense started tingling, warning him about the upcoming danger.

Peter felt stupid, he was confused. He couldn't understand what was going on. He felt the adrenaline filling his veins again, but he wasn't able to move at all. It was like he was frozen there completely, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It was like those people had escaped from the Walking Dead or zombie walk.

Still confused, he turned his head and looked at the other direction where the man and woman were, or where they should be at least. The man was carrying the woman on his back, trying to keep on move but they were surprised by a large crowd. The man tried to make a run for it, trying so hard to escape from the slowly walking crowd but his attempt failed.

There was just too many of them.

Peter watched in horror as the hands reaching toward the couple finally were able to touch them, grabbing them and eventually the man lost his balance. The crowd was quickly around them, tearing their skin and ripping the flesh off of them, greedily munching it while the wet ground was starting to get red.

He heard the loud eating, how the crowd of people... no, _things_ were chewing the flesh of the man and woman. How they let out their last painful scream as they were teared apart, their flesh and organs scooped out and getting eaten by those hungry things what looked like humans. While they were eaten alive.

Peter felt sick. He couldn't register any of this, this was too much. He turned his head and lifted his mask a little bit, throwing up while his attention at the same time was drawn to the two walking things which were now dangerously close to him.

He wanted to get the hell out of there but the fear had already gotten the best of him. Even if he tried to command his body to move away, his legs didn't move. His spidey sense was still tingling, it had been tingling for a while now, after he got a better look at the details of the two persons walking closer... and closer...

It felt like an invicible hand was choking him, it was hard to breath. The fear was too strong, it has too tight grip on him.

He was so scared that he could feel how tears were already rising to the corners of his eyes. He has never been so scared before, he has never been so shocked. So confused, so anguished.

Just as the other one was close enough to reach for him, close enough to touch him, Peter felt how someone grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the walking corpse. Peter thought that he was going to die, that this is it, but then the familiar devil of Hell's Kitchen hit the stiff with his Billy Club, with strenght enough that Peter was able hear the nasty crush.

The walker fell on to the ground, its head crushed and everything from inside of it spilled to the ground. The sight of scattered brain tissue on the concrete made Peter feel nauseous again and he felt the same horror all over again when Daredevil hit the other person with his Billy Club as well, the other crush loud in the air.

The puddle of blood under the bodies was growing, the blood splattered to the brick wall as well. It looked like a scene from a zombie movie, reminding him how he used to laught at those movies and maybe enjoy them in some level too.

But now? He couldn't believe this. There was a fucking zombies wandering around, he had just witnessed how two people were torn apart in front of his own eyes. He had seen a scene like that in a movie before, but now he had seen it happening in real life. It was too much, he couldn't believe this is happening. This can't be true, there's no way zombies can be real.

Matt didn't say anything. He could sense Peter's fear. Damn it, he could hear how the younger male's heart started to beat faster and the munching coming from the other end of the alley was enough to convince him what he had been suspecting. Peter had just seen what was going on, but this wasn't even the worst part of it yet.

Even though Matt wanted to reassure Peter, he knew this wasn't the right place or right time to do so. The munching was starting to fade and he heard them moving toward his and Peter's direction. They probably ran out of meat, out of flesh to eat and their endless hunger was driving them toward the next possible meal.

"I'm going to take you back to my apartment, don't do anything sudden", Matt said calmly, as convincingly as he could. He knew Peter was already in some sort of shock and at that state of mind he could do anything. The person who's acting only by their instincts is the most unpredictable.

He wrapped his other hand around Peter carefully, not wanting to scare him. He was already scared enough. With a help of his Billy Club, they were soon back in Matt's apartment, safe from the walking danger outside.

* * *

 

It took almost an hour before Peter finally calmed down enough to think rationally again. That one hour was the longest he has ever experienced. He had never realized how long hour can feel when you're going through inner crisis.

In the mean time while Peter had been deep in his own thoughts, Matt had carefully taken care of him and made sure he wasn't bitten. He had gently checked his hands and tried to smell the possible blood what would come out of bite wounds. He hadn't smelled the iron scent of blood and Peter's hands didn't have any kind of bite marks, so Matt had sighed in relief and wrapped a blanket around Peter's shoulders after that.

When Peter finally snapped out of his thoughts, the plate full of pasta in front of him brushed some of his thoughts away for a moment. He hadn't realize how hungry he is, the sight of food reminding it finally.

He glanced around and saw Matt standing in front of the window, listening the rain again.

"I thought you might be hungry. Go ahead, I've already eaten", Matt said when he felt Peter's gaze on his back, knowing that the other had finally thought things enough to pay attention to his surroundings again.

Peter jerked his mask off and couldn't resist the delicious looking meal, he took the plate and started eating. Matt thought him enough to even leave the fork next to the plate, making it easier for Peter to eat when he felt like he needed food.

He couldn't enjoy his pasta very long, the images of the crowd eating the flesh of the man and woman earlier came into his mind and he couldn't help but press the back of his hand against his mouth. His appetite was gone now.

Matt walked next to him and sat down to the floor, he knew what Peter was thinking right now. He knew that the other was thinking about the scene what he had seen outside and Matt understood it perfectly. This was new to Peter, he missed the beginning of this.

"What's happening to the world?" Peter asked quietly, biting his lip again hard and fighting against the urge to sniffle. He wanted to cry, even though he knows crying wouldn't help him right now. He still wanted to believe that this was some kind of shitty prank, a zombie walk gone wrong or that they were shooting the new zombie movie outside but somewhere deep inside Peter just knew that this was reality. He knew that something has changed and this is the beginning of a new era.

Matt carefully touched Peter's shoulder, trying to reassure him even though he knew he wasn't very good at it. He could sense how anguished Peter was, how his heartbeat was faster than usual, but he wasn't as scared as he was when he saw the infected for the first time.

"Everything will turn better", Matt said, knowing that Peter wasn't going to believe that. He didn't believe that either and he knew it was a lie. This epidemic was spreading so fast, he wasn't even sure how many were already infected. He wasn't sure what exactly is causing it, but he could smell it in the air. He could smell the death earlier too, when those things weren't wandering outside yet. But now the smell was stronger than before, the whole air seemed to be changed completely.

"That's bullshit and you know it too, so stop lying."

Peter huffed and turned his gaze to Matt's direction, studying the expression on his face. Matt didn't look like his words convinced himself either, some kind of worry visible on his expression. Matt sighed shortly after that and closed his eyes.

"Sorry. I guess I don't want to accept the truth either."

They both were silent after that, Peter turning his gaze back to the pasta while thinking things.

"Can you tell me now what happened?" he asked after the silence was getting too heavy to handle. Matt let out another tired sigh and finally nodded, still keeping his eyes closed and sitting next to Peter.

"After I patched you up, you fell asleep and I thought nothing of it. I went to sleep too, only to find you with high fever next morning. And not only that, there was more noises outside than usual and Foggy... Foggy was calling me like crazy. My phone was going crazy."

Matt stopped and looked like he was thinking something. Peter was studying his face, trying to understand what he was possibly thinking right now. Recalling those memories looked painful, judging by the expression what he had.

"I thought it was work related stress and I ignored it at first, I was too busy with trying to cool you down. The smell hit me after I opened the window. The smell of death and blood, stronger than I've ever smell it. That's when I realized that something odd was going on. Then the noises of total chaos outside were a lot clearer. People running, the whole traffic blocked and the strange groaning and growling around the town."

Peter was still biting his lip, listening closely what Matt was telling to him and trying to register his words. It sounded like a cliche beginning of a zombie movie, but Peter didn't doubt the reality of the story. Somehow he just could tell that Matt wasn't lying, he wasn't trying to make it look nicer than what it was in reality.

"I had to leave you alone for a while, I needed to check what was going on. When I first time encountered _them_ , I could smell the rotten flesh and the smell of blood on them. I could smell how the scent of death was following them, wherever they were going.

At first I tried to save as many person as I could. I tried to save them the next days too, but soon I learned that you can't save them all, no matter how much you want to save them. It's not possible. After realizing it, I spent more time trying to make your fever go down again.

I heard from the news that it spreads through biting. Everyone who gets bitten by those things will turn one of them too. The endless hunger keeps them going on and they don't hesitate to tear you apart, just to get their hands into the fresh flesh. Zombies. The symptoms are almost like a normal flu, except the high fever what comes after getting bitten.

I even started to worry that maybe you are infected too, your fever didn't want to give up. But when you finally started to show signs of recovery.. I was happy. I know we're not best friends but I still felt so relieved."

Matt quieted down and immersed himself into his thoughts, but he had told enough. Peter even felt a little bit bad because of his fever, Matt acted like he had really been worried and it's no surprise. If Peter was at his place, doing the same thing as he did, he'd be worried too.

Peter was feeling a little bit ashamed, now he started to realize why Daredevil didn't want to go and help those two in the alley earlier. He already knew that there was no point to try save them all, no matter how much you wanted to be a perfect hero. It's just not possible.

He had moved his hand away from Peter's shoulder at some point, but now it was Peter's turn to touch gently Matt's shoulder, reassuring him that everything is okay and that he's very grateful for everything what Matt's done for him already.

"What about Foggy? Is he safe?" Peter asked without thinking, but he started to regret it when he saw how Matt's expression changed again. Judging by the way he looked like he was a worried mama bear, Peter assumed this Foggy guy is Matt's very good friend. Maybe even best friend.

Matt was silent for a while, until he finally nodded and it made Peter smile a little bit, even though the situation wasn't very appropriate for that. "Yes, Foggy is safe right now. I haven't been able to meet him yet, but we have called each other. It's only a matter of time until the phones dies and we won't be able to make calls anymore, but right now I know he's okay."

Peter watched Matt until he turned his gaze away, trying to understand all the information he has gotten so far. When he woke up earlier, he didn't expect anything like this going on outside the apartment. It was like the whole world had changed in a short time, during the time when he's been asleep.

Now he understood why Daredevil didn't go and help those two in the alley. Why he decided to turn his gaze away and ignore their attempt to escape. But the more Peter recalled the episode at the alley, the more he began to feel guilty. He was the one who took the gun away from that man. It was their only key to survive, but Spiderman had taken that away and they both ended up dying.

"Oh my god..." Peter yelped when the realization really hit him. It was his fault.

Matt turned his head at Peter's direction and looked confused, but he could tell that Peter was thinking something what was making him very upset. And he wasn't even wrong, soon the tears began to trickling down his cheeks, Peter was crying quietly like he didn't want Matt to know that. But the soft expression on Matt's face revealed that he indeed knew already.

"It's my fault. I took the gun away and they ended up dying", Peter managed to finally say between the sniffles, his body now slightly shaking too.

Matt didn't say anything, instead he touched Peter's hand and gently stroked it with his thumb, trying to reassure him. Trying to tell him it's okay, without using words. He knew that Peter was guilt tripping himself right now and maybe it was partly his fault, but there was no reason to blame him completely.

"It's not your fault. Many areas have gotten instructions of how to proceed right now. It was their own fault, wandering outside even though the instructions told that it's better to stay indoors."

Matt's words tried to comfort Peter and he appreciated his attempt, but deep inside Peter knew that if he hadn't taken the gun away, the chances for those two to survive would have been a lot better.

"So, Hell's Kitchen has been put in quarantine because of this? What about the other parts of the city, how far this has spread?" Peter asked, trying to wipe his tears away with his other hand but it was no use. Whenever he wiped the flowing tears away, new ones were already trickling down his cheeks.

"Not only Hell's Kitchen", Matt said while still stroking Peter's hand, comforting him as much as he could. "The whole New York City is in chaos. And if I have understood everything correctly, it's not only New York. The whole world has fallen ill, the number of infected people growing rapidly. The hospitals are full of patients. They're trying to find a cure for this but so far it hasn't been successful. No one even knows why this is happening or where this thing came from."

Peter tried to think things. He tried to register everything again, but it still felt too absurd to be true. Too unreal. It almost felt like something what Wade would come up with, he and his crazy ideas always surprising Peter.

Thinking of Wade made Peter move his gaze back to Matt again.

"Have you heard anything from Deadpool?" Peter asked after he couldn't restrain himself anymore. Somehow the idea of Wade being there out alone scared him. So did the idea of Aunt May, all alone in the house while those living dead were walking outside, searching their next victim.

Matt looked surprised by that question, but he didn't ask why Peter was worried about Deadpool. He just shook his head and told him that he hasn't seen him at all. And knowing the way Matt liked to keep Daredevil stuff separated from his daily life as Matt Murdock, Peter only assumed that he didn't have Wade's number either. And he understood why Matt didn't want to give his number to him, Wade can be quite annoying time to time. Or maybe just to Peter because it's obvious that Wade has huge crush on him.

"Are you worried about him?" Matt asked after the silence fell again into the room. Peter wasn't quite sure was he worried or just interested to know what Wade was doing right now, but he ended up nodding slowly. When Matt didn't say anything, Peter remembered that Matt couldn't see his answer.

"I guess I am. Maybe a little bit, Wade can get stupid ideas out of nowhere. And I definitely don't want him to test if his healing factor can resist this... disease? Infection? Fuck, I don't even know what is the correct term for this", Peter answered and huffed, he was confused and just wanted to believe this was all a dream. Maybe he was still dreaming, maybe he hasn't woken up yet.

"I'm sure he will be fine", Matt reassured but Peter wasn't sure did he lie or did he genuinely believe that.

He turned his gaze to the closest window's direction, sighing and chewing his lip.

The world he has always known is changing rapidly into something. Something unknown, something unfamiliar. He isn't sure what to expect from the future, but somehow he knows that he has to prepare himself. He can't be sure what's going to happen tomorrow or next week, or even next month.

It's making him scared. He's scared of the future, he can sense the negative energy around him. If this is really the time of apocalypse, Peter doesn't know how to react to this new information. To this new world.

The new era of different kind of despair is only about to begin now.

The future is unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Deadpool somewhere in the distance: YOU DIDN'T LET ME APPEAR HERE WTFFF RUDE)
> 
> Heyy everyone and thank you for reading the first chapter of The Dead will walk the Earth!  
> As you can see, this is going to be the main story in the No more room in Hell series. The prologue for this story was updated last month, some of you might have already read it.
> 
> As I promised in the prologue's end notes, there will be more stuff in this series beside this and the prologue. Other oneshots and maybe mini stories too, depending on what I can come up with this series. And don't worry, Wade, Peter and Matt aren't going to be this story's only characters. When the story moves more forward, there will be other characters too. I'm not sure of the other pairings yet, so if you got some wishes, be my guest! I'm open minded for any suggestion! 
> 
> This 1st chapter is unbetaed and my mother tongue isn't English. I might need a beta-reader, so if someone is ready to volunteer for that role, message me in tumblr or send e-mail to me! 
> 
> And if someone's here curious because "that bitch hasn't updated her other story in ages! WTF is she doing?!", don't worry. This is my side-project, I'll start to write this full-time when I've finished my other Spideypool story. Sorry for the long break there, I've got a bad writer's block but I'm now starting to get rid of it. 
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter! I can't say when the next one will be updated.  
> If you got something you want to ask, or suggest anything, you can find me in tumblr with same username as here! ~


	2. It's Hard To Let You Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He doesn't hear when he arrives to the same roof, but when he feels a hand touching his shoulder, Peter just knows who it is. He knows who's with him here, even though he doesn't say anything.
> 
> "You were right." Peter's voice is weak, nothing more than a whisper escaping from his mouth. He feels how the other man sits next to him and his other hand wraps around Peter's shaking body.
> 
> "I should have listened to you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah it's been 2 months since I put the first chapter here. Yikes!  
> But I mentioned that I couldn't say for sure when this is going to get updated, so take this as a surprise or something! :D

The thing about being stuck within the four walls is that the more you keep staring them, the more you began to drift into your own little bubble. It wasn't anything new to him and he was sure it wasn't new to Matt either, but the more Peter just stared the walls, the more he finally began to accept of this new idea.

The idea of a world where dead won't say dead. Where people come back, where they can't rest after the flame of life inside them has gone off.

And the thought of that makes him feel scared. Normally when everyone thinks of death, the first thoughts are about the fact that when you die, you'll be gone. There won't be anything left from you, except the empty shell what used to be your body. You're still partly alive in the memories, but after people who knew you die too, you'll disappear completely.

Peter knew that he's stuck inside Matt's apartment. The other man wasn't going to let him go outside until he's fully recovered and even though Peter already feels like he can handle everything, Matt doesn't let him go outside yet. Peter doesn't even feel like counting how long he'll have to stay here before he can go and explore this new world.

He knows that Matt doesn't do this to piss him off, but he can't just ignore this irritation what comes from all the pampering and care. Matt is just thinking what's best for him and what's helping him recover faster, but Peter is already frustrated.

The world behind the windows has gotten somehow silent. It's almost eerily silent, all his life Peter has gotten used to the noises of New York City, but now those noises are gone. The streets which once were full of life and people minding their own business are now either empty or occupied by ghosts of people.

It's been only a couple of days since Peter found out what was going on outside, but it was still hard to accept it. It felt more like he was just dropped in the middle of a zombie movie, and the way he was stuck inside the apartment helped to strengthen that feeling.

This didn't feel like reality, not at all. Sometimes Peter found himself pinching his arm and hoping that he'd already wake up from this nightmare. So far it hasn't helped, the world with zombies is still active and there isn't any changes for that.

Even though he's been stuck with Matt this whole time, it hasn't been feeling like that. Matt doesn't just sit around his own apartment and let these feelings consume him. He goes in and out, checking the area and maybe sometimes helping people.

Peter finds it slightly amusing and at the same time disturbing too. Daredevil is known to help everyone who needs help, but now? Peter can't be even sure does he save people anymore at all. It's quite sad when you think of it.

If someone like Daredevil has stopped helping all who are in a need for help, what about the other heroes? He can't imagine a big icon and a hero like Captain America just simply stop caring of them who need him. The image of Cap just abandoning those who need him the most is very scary.

Every time when Peter closes his eyes, he can hear screams. He can hear people begging, screaming for help and he can imagine the terror what they are feeling at that moment. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night, sweating like there's no tomorrow and his heart pounding like it's going to explode and find its way straight through his chest.

The worst thing is that he doesn't know are those screams even real or has he imagined them. Are they result of a nightmare or is there someone out who's trying to survive, who's at the mercy of those walking corpses.

Sometimes when he drifts into uneasy naps, he can see Aunt May, surrounded by those stiffs who are reaching out for her. And just before he finally snaps out of it and wakes up, the last image he sees is Aunt May being torn apart, getting slowly eaten by the hungry corpses. The terror in her eyes looks so real. And even when Peter is finally awaken from those horror pictures, somewhere deep inside he can still hear those awful sounds what comes from the walkers who keep munching the flesh.

Before the phone died completely, Peter used Matt's phone to call her. He was so relieved when Aunt May picked up and told him she's alright. Aunt May sounded so worried when they were speaking on the phone. She asked many times if Peter's save and he reassured her that he's okay and that he's not alone. He promised to come and get her when he's feeling better, but Aunt May told him to not come. It'll be too dangerous, she said and Peter had bitten his lip so hard that it had started to bleed.

The next day when Peter tried to call her again, she didn't pick up. It worried him, but it didn't take long until the phone was useless. Because the world is in chaos, it understandable that the phones won't work anymore. It's only a matter of time until the power goes off too.

Matt's phone died in the middle of a call between him and his friend Foggy. Peter had stared at him while Matt had repeated Foggy's name and tried to call him again. It was the first time when Peter saw him look like he was scared. It wasn't as visible as one would thought, but visible enough that Peter noticed it.

He never would have guessed that Matt had this kind of side in him too. All the time when Spiderman had worked with Daredevil, he hadn't shown this side. It was almost like they were two different people. Daredevil acted like he had nothing to lose, like he didn't even know how to feel more than just anger or desire to bring justice to Hell's Kitchen. Matt Murdock on the other hand was acting like a human, with different feelings and expressions.

Of course he refrained himself from showing too much emotions, but after the call with Foggy was cut, Peter saw that the man behind Daredevil costume, that a man who was called Matt Murdock was more than just a hero who was lacking emotions.

When Matt went out to get them food supplies, Peter could guess that he didn't only do that. He didn't only go to fill their own food storage, but he also went to check his friends. And when Matt returned with a couple of canned food, Peter just knew that he had left some of them to Foggy and others.

Even though Matt's mother henning was already starting to make Peter feel frustrated, he was grateful at the same time. Matt cared so much that he didn't let Peter sleep on the couch, he almost forced him to sleep in his bed. Peter felt like he was very rude when he was sleeping in Matt's bed, making the other man sleep on the couch but he couldn't turn Matt's head at all. It was no use to object him.

What Peter had already learnt was that Matt was stubborn like a bratty toddler. He has also discovered that even though Matt can be pain in the ass with all this mother henning and pampering, in the end he just intends to take care of people. To be the hero, even though it isn't the easiest task right now.

At least he still tries.

* * *

 

"This is enough."

Matt turns his head to Peter's direction, looking curious while he slightly tilts his head. He could sense the frustration what was bubbling inside Peter, it was obvious but he decided to wait for him to say it loud himself.

It was no surprise that he was getting frustrated. There isn't much entertainment in his apartment and since Peter has been kept inside this whole time, Matt had kinda waited for him to finally snap out of it.

"I'm fine now, thanks for everything but I need to do something. I can't just sit here and wait, I need to help people. I need to make sure Aunt May is alright", Peter whined like a kid who's gotten tired of sitting still. And he probably was feeling like one, staying inside the apartment for the third day since he woke up after the high fever.

Matt's silence was making him annoyed, it was starting to feel like the other man was just waiting for him to start yelling at him. Still, every time when Peter tried to go outside, Matt was there to stop him. Every single time.

"Why don't you say anything?" Peter finally asked, feeling like he wanted to growl like an angry animal. It almost felt like Matt was silently judging him, he couldn't really tell by just looking straight into his eyes because his eyes were all the time just empty, lacking the spark what people usually have.

Matt sighed and shook his head before finally answering to Peter.

"Well, what do you want me to say? You know what I'm thinking and I know I can't stop you anymore if you want to make a kamikaze strike right here and right now. You're an adult and you can do your own decisions."

"I'd rather die while trying to save as many people as possible instead of hiding here and waiting my own fate." Peter frowned while he kept his eyes on Matt, studying his expression and trying to figure out him.

But as he guessed, Matt remained silent again. With a sigh, Peter walked to the bedroom and began to change his clothes. While he was recovering, Matt had borrowed some of his own clothes for him since Peter didn't want to walk around in his Spiderman costume. But now he was changing back into his own clothes, putting the costume back on and then searching the mask.

While he was looking for it, Matt walked to the bedroom door and leaned against the door frame, looking like he was watching Peter's every move even though he couldn't do that. Peter hadn't still gotten used to the fact that Matt couldn't see him, feeling like the other was staring him all the time even though he tried to remind himself that it wasn't true.

After Peter finally found the missing mask, he turned around and his eyes kept staring at Matt's figure.

"I know I can't stop you." He started but got interfered by Peter mumbling something like 'yup' to him.

The worried expression was visible on Matt's face for a couple of seconds before it disappeared and was replaced by the same poker face what he used to keep on his face all the time. Peter assumed that Matt was maybe a little bit scared of showing his own emotions, but Peter tried his best when he was focusing on to reading his body language.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about it", Peter tried to convince him while he walked past him. He could hear Matt muttering something to himself but he couldn't make up any words, they were too silent for him to hear them.

Peter opened the closest window, feeling how a hand landed on his shoulder and he was sighing internally. He turned around and faced Matt, who was now closer to him than before.

"You can't stop me."

"I know."

Peter watched Matt for a while before he bit his lip. "Then what is it?"

Matt turned his head and even though Peter saw only half of his face, he knew what kind of expression he had on his face. The worried one, the same kind what he saw him have when the phone call with Foggy was cut. Like he had named it, the mother hen expression.

"You just have to understand that you can't save all of them. No matter how much you try, you just can't." Matt sighed quietly and he was chewing his lip too.

"I know you want to save them. If I could, I'd save all of them too. But you can't and you have to accept it, Peter. The world you once knew is gone, it's been replaced with this new one. You have to adjust yourself into it or it'll consume you alive. Literally", Matt continued. He sounded worried too, that voice tone something what Peter had never heard from him before. It almost made him feel guilty.

But guilty of what? Upsetting Matt? Peter should be the one who's upset right now. If this is Matt's final attempt to try to make him stay here, it isn't working very well. Beside, if it is that kind of attempt, then Matt should just finally let him go from his grip. He probably knows that Peter is not going to stay, so why he's still trying?

"Thanks but I'd rather die trying than doing nothing." Peter said and then exited from the apartment.

"Thanks for taking care of me." Was his last words to Matt before he left him alone.

He was sure the devil was going to follow him, but after glancing behind couple of times, he was finally convinced that Matt isn't planning to coming after him. The familiar hero in red costume wasn't anywhere to be seen and even though Peter had wanted this, he was still kinda sad that Matt was just letting him go.

He didn't miss the way Matt had made sure that he was resting enough and gathering his strength, but what he was feeling was some kind of ingratitude. Even if he thanked him thousands of times, it wasn't still enough because Peter still felt like he was ungrateful brat who just ran away from home.

But the thing is that Matt's home isn't his home. Matt isn't his mother, not even a guardian and he knows that. Peter is old enough to take care of himself and mind his own business. If he wants to do something, Murdock can't stop him from doing that.

Hell's Kitchen is gloomy, but not the way it usually is. The despair and isolation was consuming it, flowing through the town like the plague.

The streets which usually were full of people are now empty, the only movement coming from slowly walking corpses. It was almost like the whole place has lost all its colors, everything replaced with grayness.

Even the sky was looking hollow, the thick and dark clouds veiling the sky. It was already evening, but it felt more like it's midnight. And the sky looked like it was mourning the old world too, small droplets falling from the clouds.

Peter hadn't observed the weather that much when he had been recovering, but he could remember the images of the sky every time when he looked out from the windows. It had been raining almost every time, no sight of sun at all. Sometimes early in the morning he had woken up because of the rays of sunshine, coming from the windows and landing on his face, but every time at some point the grey clouds had covered the sun and blocked those beautiful rays.

He didn't know was it just a coincidence or does it have something to do with the whole dead coming back to life stuff, but it was indeed depressing. The lack of sunshine built the unpleasant atmosphere everywhere.

Peter wondered how many people had trusted Spiderman to help them in their time of need. He wondered how many were disappointed that he wasn't there to help them, how many had died because Spiderman wasn't there when he was needed the most.

Heroes were here to help people and people trusted their lives for them. They trusted that when there's trouble, heroes are here to help them. But now Peter didn't even know how many heroes had sacrificed their lives just to help citizens, to help others. Or how many of them had already fallen, gotten infected by the sick ones and maybe now being part of them.

And when he thought about people who needed help, the thought of Aunt May came to his mind. Peter felt sick just when the thought how worried Aunt May has been because of him, how she's been worried and imagined that maybe Peter has gotten bitten too. It made him feel great guilt, he should have let May know earlier that he's okay. That there's no reason to worry.

He can imagine how much damage that worry has caused to her heart. Aunt May has always been a strong woman, but the loss of Uncle Ben weakened her. The way her eyes were always so brave and strong are now filled with worry and uncertainty. The old spark has been long gone.

Peter's thoughts are interrupted when hears someone screamimg for Spiderman's attention. He swings himself to the closest roof and looks down to the street, seeing a couple of women running, a bunch of walking dead following them. One of them had spotted Spiderman and they tried to get his attention, they knew Spiderman was their only hope right now.

He doesn't hesitate to act and soon he's swang himself down to the street with them, shooting webs to stop the living dead from coming closer.

"I knew he hasn't fallen", the blonde girl says, the relief visible in her eyes. Her friend nods vigorously and when Peter's sure that the web will keep the walkers away for a while, he helps them both to the closest rooftop.

"Thank you so much Spidey", they both thank as Peter leaves them there, after making sure of course that they can continue from there. Their words make him smile for a moment, feeling proud of himself for a change and blurring the feel of guilt inside him.

At least he can do something now. Maybe he can change the world a little bit, piece by piece and if that's what it takes to beat this new threat, he's willing to try. He wants to save the whole world and if it's up to him, he's going to do that.

When Matt told him that he can't save them all, Peter didn't believe him. He doesn't believe that now either. On his way through this part of the city, he's saved everyone who's been in a need for help. He couldn't understand why Matt, the Daredevil himself would say something like that when there's a chance to save people.

He didn't believe his words until he finally has his own eye-opening experience.

Just as he was about to get away from Hell's Kitchen, he heard gunshots. Normally they meant that criminals were on the loose, but in this new world gunshots meant that someone needed help really bad.

Peter turned around and headed toward the noise, hoping that he'll be in time to help those who need him.

He arrived to the scene what reminded him again of the zombie movies he used to watch. A bunch of people, four in total, were trying to escape from the stiffs and only one of them had gun, while the others were carrying baseball bats and sticks as their weapons.

They were doing pretty good until another crowd of the walking dead surprised them and they were between two fires. It was his cue to take action now.

"Look, it's Spiderman!" "Thank god, someone heard our prayers." "Spiderman help us!"

As he had done with the others before, he didn't change his tactics now either. Peter shoots webs to stop the living dead for a moment, while he was carrying people one by one to the closest rooftop what looked safe enough, free from the stiffs.

When he thought he had moved the last man to the roof, he saw the uneasiness on their faces.

"Where's Maria? She was with us when we were surprised by those things." "Has anyone seen Maria?" "Maria!"

Peter had counted them and there were only four people when he had decided to help them. He counted them again and there was the same number of people on the roof. Two women and two men, but the group was trying to search someone.

It made him doubt his count. Maybe there was a fifth one, but he hadn't seen her at all? And if there really was one more, where is she now?

"Maria! Oh god, where's my daughter?" one of the men cried while the others were shouting the girl's name and trying to spot her on the streets.

"I'll find her", Peter promised and left the group, he must find the missing girl before something happens to her.

"Find her, Spiderman!" One of the women on the roof begs. And he's going to find the missing girl, no matter what.

He finds himself on the ground, trying to look if there's any traces of her but Peter can't stay there for long. The stiffs have already spotted him and they try to reach for him, try to get close enough to bite but Peter escapes with ease.

He decides to look for the girl from the air, it'd be easier to spot something from there.

As he goes through the area again, he hears someone screaming and Peter assumes it's the missing girl. He follows the screams and finds himself on a shady alley. At the end of the alley is brown haired girl, who after spotting Spiderman is begging him to help her. The group of hungry walking dead are surrounding her.

Peter doesn't hesitate to run and kick the walking corpses away from her. To punch them, to web them against the brick wall. He does everything he can to get them away from the girl, who's scared and shaken.

Peter has a close call with one of the walkers who almost surprises him from the behind. Without his spidey sense it would have probably bitten him already.

All of the corpses are soon webbed to the closest wall and Peter takes the girl, swinging them both away from the alley. Even though they get far away from the webbed walkers, he can still hear their growls and groans ringing in his ears. He can still see the image of them in his mind, but he shakes his head and focus on to get the girl back to her group.

"He found her!" "Thank god!" "Spiderman did it!"

Peter lets the girl go when they both land safely on to the roof and the girl runs to hug her father. It brings smile to Peter's face and he's glad that the mask is hiding his face. This is the moment of the daughter and the father, the short reunion but it makes him feel so happy for them.

But the happiness is cut short when the expression on the father's face changes and the rest of the group looks shocked too.

"Maria, oh baby what's wrong?" he asks because the girl suddenly winced and when he takes a closer look of his daughter, he can see how the right side of the girl's shirt is discolored in red and part of the fabric is missing.

"God, no!" The father screams while he takes a better look of the girl's side and sees what he feared the most.

A nasty bite mark on her skin, bleeding and missing part of the skin.

"Nooo!"

At that moment Peter feels like his balance is going to betray him soon. He feels like his stomach is in knots and he's sure his face has turned paler. He doesn't want to believe it but somewhere deep inside he knows what this means.

That girl is doomed.

It doesn't matter that Peter saved her from the alley, she's doomed anyway. No one can help her now, except maybe giving her a bullet in her head.

Peter leaves them alone without saying anything. The group doesn't even realize that Spiderman left them, they are too busy with the girl. It doesn't matter anyway, there's no way Peter can help her anymore.

He swings himself far away, until he finds a rooftop what's in the silent area. There isn't any traces of living ones nor the dead ones either. It looks already like it's abandoned place, even though just only a week or more before this place also was full of life.

Peter sits down and closes his eyes, feeling the warm tears falling down from his eyes. He couldn't understand, he _didn't_ want to understand anything anymore.

He tried to help her, but she still got bitten. How? When?

Why wasn't he fast enough?

Why couldn't he save that girl, like he had saved the other ones before her?

* * *

 

He doesn't hear when he arrives to the same roof, but when he feels a hand touching his shoulder, Peter just knows who it is. He knows who's with him here, even though he doesn't say anything.

"You were right." Peter's voice is weak, nothing more than a whisper escaping from his mouth. He feels how the other man sits next to him and his other hand wraps around Peter's shaking body.

"I should have listened to you."

He doesn't get any answers, but after Peter goes through the experience once more, he bites his lip while pulling his mask off and then wraps his own hands around Matt's body. He buries his face against the other man's neck like a scared child who's trying to seek comfort from their mother.

Matt doesn't say anything, he let's Peter hug him while he keeps Peter close to him and pet his hair with his free hand. He knows Peter doesn't need his judging words right now or his criticizing. All he needs right now is comfort and Matt offers him that.

He knows that Peter is still young and reckless. He doesn't understand the world the way Matt already does.

Matt isn't fortune teller, but he knew this was about to happen sooner or later. Maybe it was better that Peter experienced it this way, he'll understand this new world more after this kind of experience.

Maybe that's the reason why Matt didn't go after him immediately. Peter wanted some space and Matt, being older and richer with life experiences, gave that to him just like he wanted. Peter wanted to survive by his own and Matt let him have his moment.

But in the end, Matt also knew that Peter was going to need someone. He knows that Peter is also going to need him in the future too, he can't leave the younger man alone. He won't survive in this new world alone, he needs someone. Matt might survive alone, but Peter is different.

He's just the type of person who can't survive something like this on his own. He needs people around him, even if he doesn't want to admit that.

"You tried your best and that's the best you can do now", Matt reassures when he's sure that Peter has calmed down a little bit. Peter's tears have wet his suit a little bit but it doesn't matter. Peter has already stopped crying and he's trying to collect himself again. Matt feels bad for him, but at the same time he doesn't let that show on his face. Peter doesn't need any pity.

When Peter lets him go and back away, Matt lets him do so. He feels Peter's gaze on him, staring at his Daredevil suit and studying his body language, but he keeps himself relaxed under his gaze.

"I'm sorry Matt", Peter finally says and wipes away what's left from the tears on his face. "I just wanted to save them all. I didn't want to believe you. I understand now what you meant, but I still wanna try. I just can't ignore their appeal for help."

Matt tilts his head but then he nods, understanding what Peter tries to say. What Peter tries to do, even though he knows too that he can't save them all. Just like Matt told him.

"You don't have to apologize."

Matt smiles gently when he feels Peter's gaze on him again. And at that time, Peter realizes that even though he's hidden himself behind the Daredevil costume again, he's more of Matt Murdock right now instead of Daredevil.

Peter sighs and moves his eyes away from Matt, watching his surroundings and then putting his mask back on.

"Wanna call it a night and come with me?" Matt asks but he's surprised when Peter shook his head, refusing the offer immediately.

"No, I need to go to check Aunt May. I want to make sure she's alright", Peter answers and before he manages to get out of there, Matt grabs his hand and stops him.

"Don't go alone", he says and Peter raises his eyebrows, not really sure did he understood correctly what's behind Matt's words. It confuses him and Matt realizes that soon. "If it's really necessary right now, I'll go with you."

Even though Matt couldn't see his reaction, he just knew that Peter was smiling.

"Try to keep up", Peter warned before he swang himself away from the rooftop. Matt couldn't help but shake his head again and follow Peter with his billy club. Of course he couldn't go as fast as Peter, but he was doing pretty well.

Sometimes Peter stopped to wait him but it didn't take long for Matt to get there.

When the Hell's Kitchen was far away behind, Peter stopped to wait Matt more often. Not only because they weren't at Hell's Kitchen anymore, but because he was repeating the fact that Matt's blind in his mind over and over again.

That fact changed his way to look Daredevil, but he tried to be like he used to be around him before knowing this piece of information. It was impossible of course, but he didn't want to bring the matter up since Matt was okay with it and he was doing very well.

Peter didn't want to think that Matt wasn't capable to do something just because he couldn't use his sight. He had learned long time ago that Daredevil could take care of himself and he seemed to sense everything what's happening around him. Even if someone attacked behind, Matt knew it almost like he had his own kind of spidey sense too.

After Peter got aware of Matt's lack of sight, he actually began to realize more how Matt could avoid attacks behind him as well. His concentration must be one heck of a thing, to be able to read the surroundings even though you couldn't see it.

Peter wanted to ask him how he managed to do that, or how sharp his senses are, but he decided to keep his mouth shut from this topic. Matt doesn't need to be reminded of the topic. Peter wouldn't want to be reminded, if he was in Matt's shoes.

Queens didn't really look different from Manhattan.

Except that comparing to what he managed to see in Hell's Kitchen, this part of the city was more active with the walking corpses. Peter had expected to see more of people trying to escape from the living dead, trying to get out of here but the traffic was stopped completely.

Streets were full of stiffs, wandering around and trying to find new victims. Everything looked like a ghost city, like it was only ruins from the city it used to be. That's probably very accurate description anyway.

There were buildings which were quarantined and lots of cars and vans with biohazard symbols were here and there between the streets and even alleys. There wasn't sign of the people who had tried to research this new threat, so Peter only assumed that maybe they faced their own fates too while on job.

But he was also surprised that here's still people driving cars, clearly trying to get away from the city. Blocked streets and cars on the way made it harder for them to try run away with a car and Peter almost wanted to go after them and make sure they get away safely. He'd have probably done that if he wasn't heading toward Aunt May's house.

"We're almost there", Peter promised when they were getting closer to the neighborhood where Aunt May's home is. Peter felt uneasiness taking over him when he started to get glances of the area.

Once this area was all familiar to him and he remembers it as it used to be, colorful and full of life. The streets weren't empty or full of cars when he was a kid, growing up and dreaming of the amazing future.

He'd have never guessed as a kid that the future was going to be a game of survival against the dead. Against something what was causing all of this to happen. He had no idea what is causing this, what's causing the dead to come back and devour everyone who happens to get in their way.

The neighborhood he once knew was now having same kind of atmosphere what was usually in graveyards. Eerie. Silent. Dead.

No lights anywhere, the houses looked abandoned and while in a hurry, Peter managed to get a glimpse of a lonely walking corpse in one of the backyards.

He was getting more restless when Aunt May's house appeared ahead. He found himself wishing that Aunt May is okay and that he'll get her out of here. He wasn't even going to ask Matt if it's okay that May joins them, he was going to take her away from this neighborhood, no matter what. He didn't even care that Aunt May's going to find out his secret, it was less of his problems right now.

There was walkers wandering around the neighbor yards when Peter and Matt landed on to the driveway. They walked in front of the door and while Peter was searching the spare key, Matt observed the surroundings.

They were spotted immediately when they landed, the attention of the dead ones were on them and Matt asked Peter to hurry. He had hoped that they didn't have to smash any heads tonight, but of course Matt had known that it was not avoidable. It was the only way to stop those monsters from getting up again.

When the first one was close enough, Matt sensed how Peter's focus was getting interrupted by the unwanted guests. "Don't worry about them, focus on to open the door. I'll keep them away", Matt ordered before he hit his billy club against the walker's head, cracking it like it was a coconut. He had to hit three times before the stiff finally gave up and died, but it gave time for the other zombies to get closer.

Peter tried to find the key as fast as he could, ignoring the sound of crunching bones and blood splattering around the ground. Some of it sometimes even managed to hit the walls of the house, coloring it red.

"Have you found it yet?" Matt asked after only sound around them was coming from his billy club, smashing and squashing the living dead.

"I'm working on it", Peter answered and tried to regain his focus. He wanted to help Matt, but it was better to find the key before they attract more of those unwanted things.

Matt murmured something but Peter ignored him, searching the spare key and eventually finding it. Aunt May had a spare key usually close to the front door, but she had a habit of changing its hiding place often, so Peter had no idea where it is. Especially if he hasn't been in contact with May lately, May usually told him when she changed the hiding spot.

Peter felt relieved when the front door's lock opened and he turned around to see how Matt was doing.

"It's open, it's open. Hurry", he almost yelled when he saw more of the stiffs coming on their way. Matt didn't waste any more time than necessary to fight with these things, when he had crushed the head of the stiff what was next to him, he barged into the house and together with Peter they closed the door. Peter locked it after that and they both sighed like they had just escaped the death itself.

Maybe the situation hadn't been as bad as it looked like, but they were both happy to be inside the house finally. Matt's little fight with the dead had attracted more of them to tottering and lurching toward Aunt May's house.

"Aunt May? It's me, Peter. I'm here, I brought a friend with me", Peter called and looked around, but the house was dark and lacking the familiar atmosphere. It sent shivers down his spine, he had never felt like this in this house.

The whole living room was looking like it hadn't been used in years. There was already a thin layer of dust on the furniture and Peter didn't like it. He went to check the kitchen, but to his disappointment Aunt May wasn't there either.

The kitchen looked unused too and smelled bad. Peter didn't have to search long until he found the source of the bad smell being the refrigerator, what wasn't cool anymore. Some of the food inside it was already spoiled and some of the food items looked untouched too.

He took a note of the fact that the kitchen-sink was full of unwashed dishes, which was making him feeling uneasy because Aunt May never left dirty dishes in the sink, she always washed them after she had eaten dinner.

"Peter, come here."

Peter turned around and obeyed, heading back to Matt who was crouching and touching the carpeted floor. He looked like he had found something interesting.

Peter crouched next to him and when Matt moved his hand, Peter gasped.

The blood stain on the floor was making him feel uncomfortable. He felt something cold inside him, like a fire what had been there just a couple of seconds ago had been suddenly blown out.

Matt didn't say anything, partly because he could hear how Peter's heartbeat had increased and also because he could sense what was waiting them here. He wasn't sure did Peter want to believe his own gut feeling yet, but Matt sure as hell believed his own. He just knew.

They both heard a stomp coming from the second floor and Peter was already back on his feet, heading toward the second floor.

"Aunt May?"

"Peter wait", Matt whispered but the boy was already gone. The older man sighed and got back on his feet too, following Peter to where the bedrooms were located.

Instead of going into his old bedroom, Peter headed toward Aunt May's bedroom. The door was closed but when Peter put his ear against the wooden surface of it and listened, he didn't hear any sounds coming from the other side of the door.

"Aunt May are you there?" Peter asked while he tried to open the door. He was happy that it wasn't locked, he didn't like the idea of breaking into the room and scaring his aunt completely.

He opened the door and took a step into the room, scanning it and actually finding the source of the stomp. The vase full of withered flowers had dropped to the floor and broken into pieces.

When his eyes saw the figure what was standing in front of the window and watching outside, Peter felt relieved. He stared Aunt May's back for a while until he finally began to walk slowly toward her. She was wearing her nightgown, looking like she was ready to go to bed soon. It was understandable, it was already late.

"Aunt May, it's me. Peter. I brought a friend with me, Matt. We're going to get you away from here."

He didn't get any kind of reply from her, not even a reaction. It scared him, it was almost like he was talking to a mannequin what was resembling his aunt. There was one option what Peter didn't want to think of. It can't be possible, no no.

"Matt has an apartment in Hell's Kitchen and it's very safe. I've been there this whole week, I've been sick but Matt has taken good care of me."

Peter stopped again and bit his lip. He was ready to give up when he saw how Aunt May's head moved a little bit, her whole body finally looking like she was alive. She had probably been so in her own little bubble that she didn't even notice Peter until now.

"I know this is going to be a big surprise, but I can explain everything later. I can explain the whole Spiderman thing but right now it's better that we leave this area before--"

After she had turned around, Peter finally saw it. And his words were cut because of it.

Once the eyes that had been blue as the bright sky were now empty and hollow, her skin paler like she hasn't gotten any sunlight. Her hair was on a messy bun and her whole appearance wasn't anything like Aunt May usually had.

To the contrast of her pale skin, her lips were crimson red and the front side of her nightgown was full of blood stains, all of them connected to her neck and chest. She was missing some skin from those two areas, the flesh partly out and visible.

She let out a groan, similar to all of those stiffs what had groaned and moaned, mindless hunger driving them closer to people.

Peter felt like he was petrified. And the more he watched Aunt May, or this thing what looked a little bit like Aunt May, the more he noticed how her skin was already looking like it was in a progress of rotting. It didn't look as bad as the walkers outside, but it still didn't look normal at all anymore.

"No.." Peter whined, trying to get a hold of himself but his feet betrayed him. He couldn't move at all, not even when the thing in front of him reached her hand toward him, letting out another hungry moan.

Her hands were almost touching him when suddenly someone pulled Peter away from the corpse. He lost his balance and fell on his ass, still being in some kind of shock while he tried to tell himself that Aunt May was gone. There was no Aunt May anymore, the person he once knew is gone. This thing might resemble her, but it is not her.

Matt pinned her against the wall and was ready to end her misery when Peter stopped him.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, his voice little bit angry when Peter in turn pulled him away from her and webbed her against the wall.

Matt had suspected that something like this was going to happen, so he wasn't surprised at all when Peter stopped him. He understood why he did that, but it was still testing his patience.

"No.." Peter repeated and stood between the webbed corpse and Matt, looking at Matt's direction and keeping him away from her.

"Peter, she's gone. That thing isn't a human anymore and even if you don't want to put an end for that thing's misery, it doesn't bring your aunt back. She won't come back."

"I know!" Peter yelled and bit his lip again afterwards. He repeated 'I know' a couple of times before he turned around and watched the empty shell of his aunt.

He didn't know what to do. Or he did know what was the best choice, but he didn't find a courage to do so. The idea of it made him feel like a murderer, and it didn't help at all that his first kill was going to be his own aunt. Or what was left from his Aunt May.

His shoulders were shaking, his whole body was shaking and he had hard time keeping his balance.

"It's hard, I know", he heard Matt's whisper next to his ear while his both hands touched Peter's shaking shoulders. He was trying to calm him down, to show him that he's not alone here. To tell him without words that if this is too much to him, Matt can do the dirty work for him. He doesn't have to do anything if he doesn't want to.

"Why I couldn't save her either?" Peter asked, his voice cracking and he felt how tears were trying to fall from his eyes again, making them itchy.

"You still can do something good for her. You can still end her misery." Matt's whisper sent chills down his spine, but he knew Matt was right. This thing looked like Aunt May, but it is not her. Not anymore.

His Aunt May is gone. She's in a better place, away from this horrible new world.

Away from the pain.

She doesn't have to be scared anymore. She doesn't have to be scared that something has happened to Peter. Maybe she has already met Uncle Ben again.

Peter didn't want to let her body to be humiliated like this. She didn't deserve this, no one deserves this. This is probably the most horrible thing what can happen to someone now.

After he had hesitated enough and watched the struggling figure in front of him, Peter walked next to the broken vase and picked up the biggest shard he managed to find. It was sharp enough to even cut his own fingers a little bit.

"Are you sure about this?" Matt asked, making sure that Peter was really okay with this. He was ready to help him if he wanted, but when Peter didn't answer anything, he assumed that he was ready to do it by himself. And he wanted to give him some space, so Matt walked to the other end of the room and waited.

"I'm so sorry, Aunt May. I wasn't fast enough to save you. To be here with you when you needed me", Peter whispered while he walked closer to the corpse, watching the shard on his hand before moving his gaze to her direction.

He stopped in front of her and pulled his Spiderman mask off, revealing his face to the stiff and staring straight into its empty eyes.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'd have moved you away from here if I'd have been fast enough to save you from this humiliation."

The groaning corpse went completely silent and it was just it and Peter, staring each other. She tried to reach her hands toward him, but she didn't let out those nasty and eerily moans and groans like she did just a seconds before.

"I love you, Aunt May. I'm doing this only because I love you and you don't deserve this."

Peter's grip got tighter around the shard and he closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on to breath. Then he took a quick glance of Matt, who just stood away from him and waited. He turned his gaze back to the thing what still resembled his aunt, even though it wasn't her anymore.

"Don't hate me. _Please_."

He hit the shard in her head, pushing it deeper when the corpse didn't immediately die after the impact. Peter watched the whole time when the ruin of his aunt took a glance of him for the last time, letting out silent groan like she tried to say something to him before finally the body went limp and died. And this time it was going to stay that way.

_"I'm so sorry."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo yeah, that kind of stuff happened in this chapter.
> 
> This chapter is more focusing on to build the relationship between Matt and Peter. And Peter still is new to this world, he hasn't adjusted into it yet. And it's quite understandable, he missed the beginning of this mess and Matt's been trying to protect him from the cruel world.
> 
> Ok so anyway, the lack of my updates is because I got new laptop and it still feels so weird to write with this, even though this is better than my old one. Also my school started a month ago and oh boy, I've been doing waitress stuff for the past 4 weeks and I can tell you, that's very tiring. I find it also funny that I'm studying to be a receptionist but instead of those studies, they put us to do waitress study job. Like whaat? Haha.
> 
> Oh yeah and back in this fic again. No Wade here yet, but don't worry. He'll make his entrance... Not maybe in the next chapter yet, but he'll jump into this soon. I promise. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter!  
> As I said in the first chapter, I can't promise when I'll update this story again. I'm trying to finish my other Spideypool fic and after I've finished it, I can focus on this completely. 
> 
> Thank you! ^-^


	3. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First days after letting Aunt May out of her misery are definitely the hardest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaas!  
> Managed to update before the year changes! :D  
> Also this one got very angsty again...

First days after letting Aunt May out of her misery are definitely the hardest.

Peter stopped talking completely, instead just lying in bed and refusing to talk about it. Most of the time when Matt brought him dinner, he'd find the plate untouched couple of hours later after coming back to take it away.

He was getting worried even though he understood Peter's reaction. It was unavoidable and only time can heal his mental scars. Matt wanted to force him to eat, at some point weighing his options whether he should try to force-feed him or not.

In the end, Matt ended up choosing not to. No matter how much he wanted to, he knew it wouldn't be okay.

So instead of forcing him, Matt began to talk to him. Peter didn't answer but it's fine, Matt isn't trying to get any answers from him. His words are most of the time small sweet talk, he just wants to get Peter listen to him without making him feel worse.

Matt knows he isn't the greatest comforter, his words are sometimes too harsh but he tries his best. It feels like talking to the walls because of the silence he receives as answer but it doesn't stop him.

Days pass slowly with the same routines, Matt sweet talking to Peter and trying to make a contact with him again. Sometimes he leaves the apartment, usually when he goes to meet Foggy or get more food. He always worries about Peter when he's outside, afraid that the younger does something stupid while he's gone. Every time he hurries back in his apartment and goes to check Peter, only to find him exactly where he left him.

Peter is feeling so much numbness that he can't even cry anymore. It feels like he has no more tears left, every single one of them has been shed.

The loss of Aunt May is the biggest reason why he's feeling so weak, but there's more than that, too. He can't cooperate with the idea of not being able to help everyone who needs his help. He doesn't want to live in a world like this. He doesn't want to lose anyone anymore.

The fear of losing everyone around him hurts too much. He'd rather give up already and succumb to death's dark and cold embrace, instead of trying to fight back and watch how everything he once knew is destroyed and turned into lifeless shells of what they used to be.

And every time when Matt leaves the apartment, the idea of ending this misery before it properly even begins is in his mind, tempting. Couple of times he's found himself searching something what would do the job, but before he manages to find that thing, he stops and starts to think things.

The image of Matt finding him dead is the biggest reason why he begins to resist the urge to end his own life and goes back to bed, trying to fight against his inner demons.

He can't do that to Matt. Not after everything he has done for him, he can't repay it that way to him.

Matt doesn't deserve that.

Peter hates himself more when he thinks about the things he makes Matt go through right now. He wants to talk with him, hell, he wants to wrap his arms around him and cry loud. He wants to seek some kind of comfort from him, like a child would seek from their mother.

He loves it when Matt pets his hair gently while trying to sweet talk him. It makes him feel like there is still some hope and it reminds him about his childhood. Aunt May used to soothe him that way every time after he had seen some scary nightmares.

He knows he should try to eat something and he can see the frustration on Matt's face every time when he comes back and finds out he hasn't eaten anything again. And it's not only frustration what Matt has on his face, there's touch of worry and sadness too. He knows what Matt is afraid of.

Matt is afraid that at this rate Peter is going to starve himself to death. He can see the look on Matt's face when he is weighing his options, when the thought of forcing Peter to eat comes to his mind. But afterwards he looks even sadder than before and takes the full plate back to kitchen.

Peter is waiting for the biggest breakdown to happen. He knows it hasn't come yet, even though he has slowly accepted the fact that he won't be able to see Aunt May ever again. No matter how much he wants to see her, he can't. She's gone. There is no Aunt May anymore. He was the one who let her out of the misery. He's the one who did her a favor, even though Matt offered to do the dirty work for him.

At least Aunt May doesn't have to suffer anymore.

* * *

 

"Where are you?"

Matt was out in the city, trying to avoid all the living dead while searching one specific person. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, impossible. The big city is full of places where he could be, but the fact that streets are occupied by crowds of living dead doesn't help his search.

If Matt just could find him, maybe he'd be able to make a contact with Peter. Maybe he'd be able to get him eat, to get him off the bed. Matt was seriously worried by now, Peter is still refusing to eat and he's getting weak because of it.

He can hear how his heart is trying to go through this all, but if he doesn't start to take care of himself and eat, the fire inside him is going to burn out. And he doesn't want to let that happen.

The seriousness of the situation makes him wish he'd see right now. Even if he could get his sight back for only a day. Only long enough that he finds the person he's looking for.

Today when he went to check Foggy, he realized how much this situation is eating him from the inside. Foggy had seen immediately that something is not right and after trying to make him speak, Matt broke down completely and probably scared him. Foggy has never seen him so distressed, he had always wondered if Matt even knew what distressed means. But his emotional outburst confirmed that after all, he is a human being too with emotions.

After he was able to leave, instead of going back to his apartment he went to search the only person he knew Peter cared for.

By now the city had adjusted into this new world, the voices what you could usually hear in big cities were gone. They were replaced by the eerily silence, the whole place turning into a ghost of what it once was.

Sometimes someone was trying to get away from it, by car or by walking but most of the time the streets were occupied with things what used to be humans. And it isn't so long ago since they were still alive, living a normal life with everyday problems. What makes the whole situation feeling even more hopeless is the fact how quick everything fell.

Even though there wasn't anything funny about the situation, Matt did find it somewhat very ironic. People always thought they'd survive something like this because they've seen shows of it. Some people were preparing themselves for sometimes like this while others were laughing and calling them crazy, but the tables are turned around now.

It's like a joke that has gone too far, but saddest thing about it is the fact that this is reality. This isn't a joke, but god did he wish this was one.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard running footsteps, a single clang now while rotten flesh was dropping to the ground, bones cracking and smell of blood getting stronger. Someone was out there too, but the way that person was fighting against the walking corpses is different from normal people.

Matt got curious, even though he knew the person wasn't the merc he was looking for right now. This was someone who knew what they were doing and how they'd get through without getting bitten by one of those things. They probably didn't even need his help, but Matt was curious enough to find out more.

He headed toward the sounds, still making sure he's not too close to the walking corpses down on the streets. He preferred staying on the roofs of the buildings because there usually wasn't any walkers. They were zombie-free areas and he wasn't in the mood to smash some heads. He did it only when it was necessary, he didn't enjoy it at all.

As he got closer and he listened the sounds more, he was starting to get a picture and understanding who was that person down there, fighting against the infected ones while trying to clean his way through the crowds.

"Do you need any help, Captain?" Matt asked, landing on top of the street lamp while he listened his surroundings.

"Oh, I'm okay. I'm almost done."

Matt shook his head, not really believing the answer he received from the other.

"No you're not, I can hear more of them coming. Let me help you."

He dropped down, crushing walker beneath him with his full weight while hitting another one with billy club. The smell of blood and rotten meat hit his nose as soon as he moved toward the soldier.

"Somehow I'm not surprised that Captain America is still standing."

"World can't get rid of me that easily. I could do this all day. The real surprise is you, here. Is it this busy in Hell's Kitchen too?"

"Yes. Same thing, this is nothing new."

They keep killing the attacking zombies, making sure they have each other's back. If the situation wasn't what it is right now, if the world was what it used to be before hell was unleashed on Earth, this would be amazing sight. It would be rare sight, seeing Daredevil and Captain America teaming up.

But now? It's not so surprising.

Matt is glad he run into Steve, it means the Avengers aren't part of these undead things. Somehow it doesn't surprise him that Captain America is still standing and fighting. He kinda assumed that the Avengers are still trying to help the city, or at least some of them are.

Even though he can't see him, Matt can imagine how Steve is in bad shape too. The thing what he noticed first after this all started was the fact that first thing what people forgets or don't even care is the personal hygiene. But who really has time to go take a shower when there's walking corpses trying to eat you alive?

And it's not like Steve smells like shit. He smells like mixture of sweat, grass and blood. Those smells reveal already what he's been up to today. Fighting, probably he fell on the ground at some point and he has bleeding cuts. Bleeding cuts are the biggest thing what worry Matt, the smell of blood seems to attract these things more and he had no idea what kind of wound he has. Did he scratch himself? Got bitten?

Instead of prying into his personal issues, he finds himself standing behind Steve, backing until their backs touch each other. The silent growling and gurgling sounds are so loud around them, even though Steve probably didn't hear them as loud as Matt does.

"Looks like we're surrounded", Steve chuckles, clearly trying to hide the fact that he, Captain America, is scared. He tries to sound like he isn't afraid of death, but Matt can hear how his heart starts beating faster and his breathing changes from normal to rapid, shallow breathing.

He's afraid, but he doesn't want to let Matt know. He isn't going to tell that loudly, but Matt already knows. He hears it. No matter how much people think Captain America is so much different from them, by now Matt can tell that Steve is as much normal person as everyone else.

"What's your plan?" Matt asks while he hits the growling walker next to him, hearing how its skull cracks from the strength of his hit. They are getting closer even though they are stumbling slowly toward them, he can tell there's too many of them. If they try to kill all of them, they are going to end up being the main dish today.

"Honestly? I'd really want to say go for it and let's try go through them, but it's a bad choice. We can do nothing against them, there's too many of them. They're everywhere."

It sounds like Steve's heart is going to explode at this point, the way it beats against his ribcage is pure fear. He's scared to death and if they don't do something quickly, they're going to die for sure.

"I think we should move up to the roof. They are usually safest places right now." Matt cracks another walker's head into pieces after one of them gets too close.

"There's fire escape on the alley ahead of you."

"What do you think, can you make a run for it? I can lower the ladder for you."

"There isn't any other choices."

With that Matt nods and they both start to run toward the alley, pushing and killing the stiffs what happens to be on their way. When they're close to the fire escape, Matt swings himself there with his billy club and lowers the ladder. Steve climbs up just in time before one of the growling zombies tries to bite him. Even though those things can't climb up, Steve still raises the ladder up before climbing up to the roof.

He didn't even know he was holding his breath until they both were on the roof. Steve lets out loud sigh and after a while his heart starts to beat at its normal speed again.

They both sit down and try to catch their breaths, all that fighting and escaping really drained all energy out of them.

After they catch their breath, Steve's the first one to open his mouth and ask a question what's been on his mind for a while now. "What are you doing here? You look like you're looking for something."

Matt turns his head toward him and he clearly thinks the subject before answering to his question. "I'm actually searching someone."

"Oh. Okay, who?"

Instead of answering right away, Matt turned his head again and sighed. He had forgotten who he had been looking for when he decided to help Steve. Now when he remembered it again, he also remembers the reason why he is searching him.

"I need to find Deadpool."

"Deadpool?" Steve sounds surprised, he didn't expect that answer, it came completely out of the blue. "What about him?"

"My friend is in bad shape and I need to find him. I think he's the only one who can cheer him up enough that he'd at least eat something." Matt keeps his voice steady and calm, even though there's a storm going on inside him. He's so worried at this point that it's hard to deal with the fact that if he doesn't find a way to cheer up his friend, he's going to die.

Steve probably sees the worry on his face because he moves to sit right next to him, touching carefully Matt's shoulder like trying to tell him he understands him completely.

"It's about Spiderman, isn't it?"

Matt is surprised that Steve's guess is correct, but at the same time that's again something what you can expect from him. He can read some people like books and Steve is always paying a lot of attention to things around him. He must have noticed the friendship between Daredevil and Spiderman, there's been times when he has caught a view of them working together.

"That's right."

"This sounds cliche but is he okay? I mean, you just told me he's in a bad shape but I want to know more. Since this all started, I haven't seen him at all. Is he hurt?"

"Mentally he's probably scarred for life. Physically? Well, he was just getting better after being sick but now he's refusing to eat. I can't make any contact with him and I'm afraid that he's going to lose the battle soon." Matt's voice cracks once, but he manages to maintain it. Still, it's enough for Steve to notice it.

"Sounds bad indeed", Steve murmurs, keeping his hand on Matt's shoulder. They've never been best friends, but Steve doesn't hesitate to comfort Matt. He looks so broken right now that he can't even think of ignoring it.

While Matt has focused all his energy to comfort Peter when he had needed it, he's forgotten that he needs it too. There's no one to comfort him. Even though he visits Foggy constantly, Foggy never has a chance to comfort him like Steve does now. Matt's always too stubborn to even tell things like these to him, except today.

Somehow he's reached his breaking point today. He's surprised that he even has one too, he's ignored common human feelings so long. It feels good to have someone here to pat your shoulder and tell you lies like _'everything's going to be fine'_ even though the whole world is dying in front of them.

Still, hearing those words, hearing those cliche lies makes him feel better.

"Please tell me you have seen him today." Matt says suddenly, hoping that Steve has seen Deadpool somewhere today. Somehow he just believes the idea of Wade's presence making Peter feel better. Maybe it'll remind him that even though he lost his aunt, there's still people who care about him. And there's people who aren't going to turn into flesh eating zombies.

But karma seems to hate him very much today since instead of getting the answer he wants to hear, Steve shook his head. "I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. I've been busy with everything what's going on lately."

"It's okay", Matt sighs and bite his lower lip. "Somehow I was expecting that answer."

His words make Steve feel bad about himself. Like he's done something wrong because he hasn't seen Deadpool anywhere. But at the same time he knows Matt doesn't mean anything bad.

"How are the Avengers doing? I've been too busy in Hell's Kitchen, I haven't heard the fate of your team." Matt look curious, hiding his disappointment under his curious expression. He feels how Steve moves his hand away from his shoulder and the deep sigh doesn't sound promising at all.

"Surviving. We've lost contacts to some of our members but we're not sure have they fallen victims to this plague or not." Steve doesn't sound calm, Matt can tell he's going through same kind of feelings. Maybe that's why he can understand him so well right now.

Matt nods, understanding the situation.

"But why aren't you in the tower with others?"

"I was returning from my latest mission. You can imagine the shock when I saw how deserted the whole city is. I knew what was going on because same things are happening around the world, but I never expected it to look this bad", Steve explained while Matt just listened and nodded.

Soon he remembers the smell of blood, fresh blood what definitely wasn't coming from the rotten corpses. It was coming from Steve.

"You're hurt, aren't you?" Matt asks but doesn't receive answer right away. Instead Steve just moves his gaze to his side where the bloody wound is. The bleeding has stopped, but it still hurts like hell. It's healing slowly.

"It's not a big deal, hurts a lot but it'll heal."

"Did you get bitten?" Matt's question is sharp and he doesn't try to sound discreet at all. He wants honest answer.

"No! Dear lord, no. I didn't get bitten. I crashed my motorcycle and it left me with nasty wound. I guess that's one of the reasons why those things were suddenly surrounding me." Steve explains while checking his wound again, hissing in pain when he tries to hide it under his suit. His suit has several cuts on it.

The silence falls after that, both of them just sitting there and thinking. Matt tried to figure out where Wade could be, there's so many options where he could be right now. Hopefully alive too. He's not even sure does he want to believe in his healing factor. Can Wade be immune to this too? Sure, his healing factor is strong one but can it resist the whole turning into walking corpse process?

He wants to believe that, but by now Matt knows to not keep his hopes up too high. The reality doesn't destroy him so badly if he doesn't believe impossibilities.

"Are you both hiding in Hell's Kitchen?" Steve finally asks, breaking the heavy silence between them.

"Yes. It's a penthouse apartment, there's no chance that any of them get there", Matt answerd, tilting his head. He had thought about inviting Foggy and Karen to his apartment too, but it'd be very risky to move them right now. They needed to study those things more, when they're most active and then plan the whole thing through.

Also, because of Peter's bad shape right now Matt hasn't brought the subject up yet. Maybe after Peter gets better, maybe then he'll discuss about it with both Peter and Foggy. It'd be safer to have more people around them. More people to have your back. It also would ease things enough that Matt wouldn't have to visit them in a different place. Living under the same roof would make things easy and no one would be alone.

"Sounds good. But I'm guessing the energy run out already from the apartment? It seems like most of the places are already without it. Our tower has it. I don't think we have anything against it if you want to move with us. We have enough space for everyone." Steve explained calmly and the offer indeed sounded very tempting. The tower's security system is a lot better. Bunking up with the Avengers didn't sound so bad either.

But Matt was hesitating, he felt like he can't make these kind of decisions without hearing Peter's opinion. No matter what was going to happen, he wasn't going to leave Peter. He wanted to make sure he doesn't have to be alone. Even if it meant that they had to refuse the good offer.

"I'll think about it. I need to ask opinion."

"Sure. If you decide to move in with us, you know where to find the tower."

"What about Deadpool? You know, if I manage to find him, we're kinda three-in-one offer."

Steve was silent for a while, thinking. Matt was sure he had nothing against Wade, even though he can be annoying piece of shit sometimes, but other Avengers might be a problem. Some of them didn't really like Deadpool and Matt understood them. It's nothing new.

"I'll talk with Tony. But I'll make sure it doesn't matter if he comes with you."

They sat silently again, like they're waiting some kind of miracle to happen. But after a while Matt gets up, the growling noises of the living dead has quieted down.

"I guess I'll keep searching him. Be careful, Captain. They are slow, but they can outnumber you quickly and before you even notice it, it's too late." Matt warns while he playfully salutes, lightening the mood before leaving.

"Good luck." He can hear Steve wishing him luck silently before his focus turns back to growling what's coming from the ground. He decides to stay out of the trouble, avoiding unnecessary landing to the streets and ground.

* * *

 

Matt is frustrated completely when he arrives back to his apartment. He didn't find any traces of Wade and he even went through his messy apartment too. No sign of him, it's like Wade has vanished into thin air. Where the hell is he?

He's so annoyed and disappointed that he doesn't even notice first that Peter is standing in the bedroom doorway, watching him quietly and barely stays up. His legs are weak because of the amount of time he has spent in bed, mourning and refusing to eat.

But when Matt finally notices him, he visibly winces because he didn't expect finding Peter there.

"Peter, how are you feeling? Do you want something to eat?" Matt asks, acknowledging the fact that he's acting like a mother hen again. He's glad that Peter is finally away from the bed, but knowing how bad shape he has gotten himself into doesn't help at all.

Peter doesn't answer, he just stumbles toward Matt. It sounds almost like he's walking like the zombies outside and for a moment, Matt is frozen with fear. Did he die? Did Peter turn into one of those things, is he now after his flesh? After his brain?

Matt is frozen for a moment, until his body relaxes. He can't smell any rotten meat what is usually the revealing thing on those things. No, Peter doesn't smell like that at all.

As soon as he's close to him, Peter wraps his hands around him and places his head against Matt's shoulder. Matt is at the verge of freaking out when Peter starts to cry loud, but instead of acting like it's something unnatural, Matt starts to stroke his hair.

"I'm.. I'm sorry Matt. I can't do this, it's too much", Peter manages to whisper while sniffling, his tears already making wet spot on Matt's shoulder.

But Matt hushes him while still stroking his hair. It's clear now that Peter has finally reached the final breakdown because he's crying like there's no tomorrow. He's crying the way he hasn't before and if he manages to get over this, he's going to recover.

"It's okay, Peter. It's okay", he whispers back and stops his hand, now just only hugging Peter and offering all his comforting to him. There's no way he's going to let Peter get worse from here because that would be a mistake with too high cost.

Staying strong for him is challenging, especially since Matt feels like he's screaming internally. There's a storm inside him, while outside he looks calm and peaceful. He can't let his true feelings show up, not now. He can't let Peter see how mentally broken he is too, because right now Peter needs to see how strong you can be, even though the shit has hit the fan ages ago.

Matt feels like he wants to cry too, but for Peter's sake he stays calm and comforts him. He gives him all the attention and care what he needs, because there's nothing else he could do right now for him.

After a while Peter starts to calm down, loud crying turning into quiet sobbing while he's clinging to Matt like a child to mother. Right now he has forgotten everything and everyone, Matt is the only one in his world because he's right here right now.

And Matt doesn't even mind it. He finds it crazy how their friendship has changed, they have never been this close before. He had never imagined that one day he'd see Peter as the little brother he never had. But now? He'd fight and beat the whole world to make Peter feel better.

"I'm no use, I'll slow you down."

"No you won't. Peter, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere and I'm definitely not going to leave you alone."

Matt's sure he can hear his heart breaking slowly. He can understand that Peter is afraid of letting people close to him right now, because the chance of losing them immediately is high. It breaks his heart to know that Peter thinks he can't do anything, that he doesn't feel like he can survive in this horrible world.

Well, he might not survive on his own. But if he has people around him, he's definitely going to do fine then.

They end up sitting to the couch, Peter clinging to him like his life depends on it. After he finally lets go, Matt quickly goes to grab some fruit slices. Slowly and after offering them couple times to him, Peter finally accepts food and starts to eat.

It's not much, but enough for him to not feel like he's going to starve to death soon.

The night is calm and restful, they both sleeping on the same couch. Or more like Peter sleeping on top of Matt instead of going back to the bed. Matt doesn't have a heart to move either and he doesn't mind the little cuddling. It calms his inner storm, knowing that Peter trusts him and isn't afraid to show his feelings.

Next morning Peter wakes up alone on the couch.

At first he winces because Matt isn't here and he's afraid he won't return. But after he sees Matt in the kitchen, his whole body relaxes. Matt hasn't disappeared during the night. He hasn't abandoned him.

Instead of getting up, Peter lays down and thinks through everything what happened yesterday. Everything what he thought, what he felt, what he heard Matt saying to him.

Something definitely changed yesterday.

He feels more calm than ever and the reason behind it is probably the breakdown he had yesterday. He still feels like shit and like he wants to cry his eyes out, but some kind of heavy feeling is gone now.

He can finally be able to start from the beginning. Finally adjust to this new world. And he's not alone, Matt is still here with him.

"You were out late last night. What were you doing?" Peter asks, drawing Matt's attention to himself. His question makes Matt stop whatever he is doing in the kitchen.

"The usual things. Went to meet Foggy", he answered and Peter didn't doubt it. He knows how much Matt cares for his friends and usually he spends a lot of time talking with Foggy whenever he goes to meet him.

"How is he?" Peter asks even though he doesn't know him at all. He has heard things from Matt, about how they had set up a firm together; Nelson and Murdock Law Office. He found all this stuff interesting because Matt has never shared so much things about his life to him, until now. It didn't matter anymore, because everything has changed and their lives will never be the same what they once used to be.

"Fine. Foggy and Karen are still hiding at the same building, but they have thought about moving soon. It's not the best possible hiding place and those things are starting to be pain in the ass." Matt had noticed how the amount of walkers around the area has increased. It feels like they can smell the people close by and even though Foggy and Karen are doing their best with barricading the doors and windows, there's still a chance that they'll get through it eventually.

They are silent for a moment, Peter nodding and thinking what he just heard. Even though he hasn't seen the place where Matt's friends are, it sounds like it's getting worse wherever they are.

"What do you think? Is it good idea?" Peter asks and gets up, walking slowly toward Matt. He's hungry, no, he's starving. But he's too shy to ask for food. And from the look of it, Matt was in the middle of making something to eat.

"I'm not sure. It's good because the place isn't safe and the number of those things has grown rapidly. But moving from place a to place b can be dangerous, especially since the chance of getting outnumbered is high." Matt explains and notices how Peter has walked closer. He also remembers what he was doing and continues cooking because Peter must be hungry as hell.

"I guess it's hard to find any places what aren't risky. The whole world has gone mad." Peter watches Matt for a moment, until he finds his way to the window and looks outside. He hasn't done that in a while and even though he had hoped that this is just a bad dream, the sight of stiffs reminded him about the cruel reality.

This is not a dream. This is not a scene from a stupid zombie film. It's real and it's happening right now.

Everything still feels so absurd. Not long ago he was watching shitty zombie movie in his own little shithole alone, laughing because the zombie make up was so bad and the acting wasn't great either. He had laughed to the idea of people coming back from beyond the grave and walking aimlessly, growling and gurgling like an animals while they are hungry for flesh.

Now? He feels stupid for laughing to it. It's like karma decided to strike back and make him pay for his laughs. He never wanted anything like this to happen in real life, even though he kinda enjoyed watching bad zombie movies or zombie game videos on Youtube.

Everything he once knew, it's all gone. In a blink of an eye.

No one wished something like this to happen. But it still happened and somehow he isn't even surprised if no one knows the reason why all of this happened.

Somehow his suspects goes to something in the air. The way Matt acted just before everything changed, it's like he was able to smell it from the air.

Did someone do this on purpose? No way. Who would want to live in a world full of living dead? No one. No one really wants to live such a fucked up life.

Is it natural? Did Mother Nature one day decide that humans need to pay for everything what they've done and the answer is this zombie outbreak? Is it like a plague what's spreading? From the looks of it, it's not only this country what is suffering. This is worldwide problem and there isn't probably any place what's free from those walking corpses.

It's really depressing to think like that. There must be at least one place what's safe, right?

Peter's thought were interrupted when Matt brought him plate full of food. While Matt was still eating his own portion, Peter ate his plate empty in a matter of minutes. All the refusing had made him starve and the sight of food reminded him how hungry he was. It felt good to eat properly something, even though he knew they were trying to eat sparingly. Matt had probably served a smaller portion to himself, because he knew Peter was going to need more food.

It made him feel bad but Matt didn't seem to mind at all.

"I've thought of asking if Foggy and Karen wants to move here. I mean, this apartment is safe because it's smaller chance for those corpses to find their way here. I haven't asked yet because I want to know what you think about that idea. Are you okay with it?" Matt asked suddenly. Peter turned his gaze to him and watched quietly, thinking.

It was surprising that Matt would ask him because this isn't his apartment. He doesn't have any voice in the matter. Matt is the one to decides whether someone moves here or not. But of course Matt is sweet and asks, wanting to make sure is it okay or not.

"I don't have anything against it. But I guess we need to make a proper plan before they leave their place."

"You're right", Matt says and puts his fork on the plate. "We can't aimlessly run outside. We need a plan. Next time when I'm going to meet Foggy and talk about this, do you want to come with me? I'm sure you'll get along with him and Karen."

"Sure."

Matt nods but then his hopeful expression changes, he's now more serious than ever before.

"But only when you're feeling better. We're not going to pull any kamikaze stunts outside. I met Captain America yesterday and he was close to become food for those things."

"Wait, you met Cap yesterday?"

Peter was surprised to find out this fact. Captain America is alive? Somehow the idea doesn't sound so weird, it means there's still Avengers out there. It means the symbol of freedom and peace is alive and giving hope to people. Still, it surprised him to learn that Steve Rogers had a close call with death. Of course it's normal in this new world, but it still felt weird. Peter hasn't adjusted completely to this new world yet.

"Is he okay?" Peter asks.

"Yes, he was shocked and surprised, but beside that he's fine. He had crashed his motorcycle and bleeding, the smell of blood attracted those things to surround him", Matt explained. He was calm while he talked about it, like it was nothing to worry about. He didn't want to tell anything about the fact how terrified Steve was yesterday. It was freaking him out too, because Captain America is always shown as the perfect and strong figure. If Captain America is scared to death, what does that tell about the situation?

"What about the other Avengers?"

"They've lost contacts to some of them. He wasn't sure what's the real situation."

Okay, it started to sound really bad. Even if Matt was trying to tell everything like there's nothing to worry about, Peter could sense the sudden change in the atmosphere. Matt wasn't telling everything about his meeting with Captain America, but Peter didn't want to ask too much.

"I hope they are okay." Peter's voice was full of hope and he was being honest. He really wanted them to be okay, the Avengers can do something to change this situation, right?

Speaking of Avengers reminded Peter that there is more people he wanted to know if they are okay. what about Wade?

Wait... Wade!

"Have you heard anything from Wade?" Peter suddenly asked, turning his gaze from window to Matt.

He was disappointed when Matt just shook his head. "I tried to find him yesterday. Couldn't find him, but I'm sure he's okay."

He could sense how Peter was getting restless, but there really wasn't anything they could do right now. And Wade probably was handling this situation well. At least he wished he is, because if Wade's gone too, Peter's probably going to be devastated.

Of course Matt had sensed the special bond between Peter and Wade. Even if Peter didn't really admit its existence or just didn't notice it yet, at least Matt did.

And it's obvious that Wade has a thing for Peter. Or why else would he follow him so much that he even came up with the name Team Red? Sometimes Wade was really pain in the ass, but most of the time Matt sensed that Wade really cares. He's not just there to harass Peter, he truly cares.

Wade probably knows too that if he ever hurts Peter, Matt will hunt him down. No kidding, he'll do it.

"Don't worry", Matt tries to lighten the mood because he doesn't want to make Peter feel sad again. He is finally getting better. "He can take care of himself. He has a strong healing factor, those things have no chance against him. If someone is going to survive through this whole thing, it's none other than Deadpool. Don't you agree?"

Peter couldn't help but nod and watch out of the window.

* * *

 

Matt wants to make Peter rest until he's gathered his strength again, but Peter insists Matt to take him meet Foggy. Matt really tries to keep his head cold, but after begging and promising it's not a big deal, he finally gives up.

Peter feels relieved because he doesn't want to spend anymore time alone in the apartment. He gets very lonely there, especially since it reminds him about what's happening in his life. He has stared the walls too long to be uncomfortable there when he's alone. He also misses being outdoors, even if it means seeing those stiffs again.

As soon as Peter has put on his Spiderman costume, they leave the apartment.

The weather outside is gloomy, even darker than what Hell's Kitchen normally used to be. It feels like a different world, nothing's familiar anymore.

The streets are empty, except the walkers here and there. They haven't taken all of the streets, there's a lot of places where you can't see any of them. But when they appear out of nowhere, it's sad to see how they're wandering in groups. They can be deadly if you make a mistake to take a wrong turn somewhere. Even though they are slow, they can outnumber very easily and after that it'll be hard to escape the situation.

Peter is surprised to learn that Foggy and Karen are hiding in a place what used to be a barber shop. It was kinda strange place to barricade yourself in, but he didn't know the circumstances when they decided to stay somewhere. Maybe they were trying to head toward Matt's apartment? Or maybe there's something else? Whatever it was, Peter doesn't judge them. It's better than nothing, after all.

The front door is barricaded completely and there's no way anyone would want to go through it either. A group of zombies have surrounded the door, trying to get in but their attempt is very weak. But it's no doubt that if the group size grows, eventually they will get in. No matter what they do, the door and glass windows won't hold them out for long.

They head toward the back door what's located in nearby alley. The alley is barricaded as well, heavy dumpsters and couple of cars preventing any walkers to find their way to the back door. The back door is also locked, which doesn't surprise him either.

Matt and Foggy has some kind of tap code to let them know it's Matt who's knocking at the door.

Peter focuses to watch their surroundings while Matt is knocking the door. Even though the alley is empty and well barricaded, there's always a chance that one of them manages to go through and wait for the moment to strike. Gosh, Peter wished those things won't become smarter than what they are.

The door opens soon and Peter's attention turns to a blonde woman, who he assumes is Karen. She doesn't look surprised to see Daredevil, but her eyes soon move to Peter. She didn't expect to see him here, it's clear and could be read from her expression.

After she's made an eye contact with him, she moves away, letting both of them inside before closing the door and locking it again.

The lack of words makes the atmosphere somehow uncomfortable. And as soon as Peter steps into the main area, he understands why the atmosphere is so heavy in the building.

"There's more of them today than what was yesterday", man with messy brown hairs says while watching the barricaded windows and door, blank expression on his face. You can see from the window how the undead are trying to get in. It doesn't help at all either that one of the windows has couple small cracks, probably cracked when they barricaded the place.

It's no doubt that this man is Foggy. He does look like a person who would hang out with Matt.

Karen sits back to the padded red chair, her gaze moving to the window's direction too. She looks like the fear has gotten the best of her and that's probably what has happened. It's no surprise either, the fact that her eyes are bloodshot tells that she has cried a lot.

"I was going to talk about that. I've noticed it too", Matt says, drawing Foggy's attention. But instead of moving his gaze to him, Foggy's eyes focus on Peter. While he looks tired and beaten up, there's some kind of surprise too. He did not expect to see Spiderman here, even though he knew about Peter. About the fact that Matt was currently treating his hurt friend. His friend who's so numb and sad that Matt's afraid he's gonna do something stupid.

"You brought a friend", Foggy manages to say, his voice full of surprise. Matt nods like it's nothing new, while Peter feels like he doesn't want to have any attention at all. He doesn't need it, Matt has given him enough of it already.

"I guess it's typical Hell's Kitchen. Every day is a different day", Karen points out and Foggy nods, small and sudden smile on his face. It disappears as quickly as it can be seen.

Foggy turns his gaze to Matt, making Peter feel more comfortable again.

"Matt, if that group keeps growing, that window isn't gong to last long. It's already cracked." Peter caught the tiny amount of fear in Foggy's voice. His gaze turns to the cracked window, it doesn't look so bad but it is going to break completely at some point.

"I know. That's why I have thought of it and I think we should plan something. You and Karen can't stay here long."

"But where are we going? Damn it, streets are full of those things. As soon as we try to get away from here, they're going to catch us and have a nice fancy dinner, us being on top of the menu."

Foggy's voice was nervous and the expression on his face was full of misery. As soon as he finished his sentence, he was pacing back and forth with a pensive look.

The atmosphere got heavy after the silence fell between them. Karen didn't want to take part of this conversation, Foggy already took all the words out of her mouth.

Peter walked closer to the cracked window and watched outside, staring at the stiffs what tried to reach out for them. While most of them weren't anywhere close to the window, couple of them had managed to slip close to it and were trying to walk through it. The continuous sound of them bumping against the window added a creepy touch to the already uncomfortable atmosphere.

"I think I can help with the problem." Peter suddenly announced while staring outside, feeling how Foggy and Karen moved their gazes to his back. As soon as he turned around, he met Foggy's unbelieving gaze.

"How? It's most likely a suicide if we go outside. Even if we get some kind of weapons against them, they're still outnumbering us. I'm sorry that I can't climb the walls or shoot webs. If I was able to do something like that, I guess I wouldn't be trapped here." Foggy didn't mean to sound so angry and such an asshole, but his nervousness was playing the big part of the way he answered.

Matt tried to calm him down by putting his hand on Foggy's shoulder, but he moved away from his touch and stared Peter.

"It's okay", Peter answered and watched as Foggy got this confused look on his face which demanded him to tell more.

"You can't shoot webs or climb the walls, I know it. But I can."

"Wait a minute", Karen interrupted, getting up from the chair and walking closer. Her expression wasn't hopeless anymore, instead she looked like she just realized that there's still some hope left. "You can slow them down with your webs."

Peter nodded. He had done it before when he saved people.

Why wouldn't he do it again, to _save_ people?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said, this one is such an angsty chapter. I had hard time writing it because it's so depressing that time to time I just had to take a break before writing again. This fic surely does have very dark and sad beginning. But I promise, I'm trying to make some of the chapters lighter than others.
> 
> No Wade again. My original plan was to put him here but the problem what I faced is the fact that there isn't any good part yet where he can make his entry and jump into this story. But soon, I think I'll find him a place to jump in. But beside that, at least some other characters appeared here instead of this being all Peter and Matt stuff. 
> 
> I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I've rewritten this and changed my plans so many times that it looks totally different from the original idea for this chapter. I guess I just didn't want to rush with things.
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter! It's hard to digest, I know because I had hard time to write it! But I think we can finally kick this story to move forward because we have basically deal with all the shit from the beginning.
> 
> Until next chapter! ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


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